


The Hawk's Tenshi

by Babykitsune9



Category: Avengers, Bleach
Genre: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Clint is a good alpha, F/M, Female Kurosaki Ichigo, Funny Phil, Ichigo doesn't know what she is, Non-Traditional Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Protective Clint, Protective Nat
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-21
Updated: 2019-11-29
Packaged: 2021-02-25 20:40:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 28,141
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21511633
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Babykitsune9/pseuds/Babykitsune9
Summary: I really suck at summaries. Clint didn't act like normal alpha's should. In fact most of the time he seemed to be 'instinct' challenged when it came to his dynamic. So when Phil came to him about an unwilling 'service' omega needing to be paired off for her own protection, his bad habit of taking in strays kicked in.
Relationships: Clint Barton - Relationship, Ichigo Kurosaki - Relationship
Comments: 3
Kudos: 60





	1. Chapter 1

It was a bad habit of his.

One from back in his earlier days when he had wanted to keep everything on both four and two legs. It was also a habit that he had yet to manage to break, and god was he so damn _glad_ of that today.

His day started out like it always did.

He rolled out of bed, got dressed, went to the gym to spar with his teammate, Nat a little bit and then returned to his quarters to bathe off the sweat and grime after which he planned to go and forage for food.

He'd walked out of his living quarters with the intention of going to the canteen to dig up some grub before his stomach ate his backbone but paused in the doorway when his friend and long time handler, a beta by the name of Phil Coulson, appeared in front of him and quickly pushed him back into his room and locked the door behind him.

"We need to talk." The beta said as he walked over to a small table and dropped a manila file down on it and then looked at him expectantly.

Clint made a frustrated sound and looked at the door longingly before saying, "Just so you know, I haven't had my morning coffee yet."

"Really? And you let me lock myself in here with you?" The beta sounded both startled and slightly nervous. And for good reason too. Everyone and their cousin in Shield knew that the blond was an absolute bear until he had at least _six_ cups of coffee. After that he- well, wasn't exactly pleasant. But he was just slightly less murderous.

So anything that prevented the master assassin from going homicidal on all of their asses was considered a necessity.

"Did I just basically sign my own death warrant walking in here this morning?" Phil wouldn't have bothered to ask if he didn't feel at least a little bit threatened. So clarifying where he stood with the younger man was necessary.

"Don't worry, Phil. I'm fond of you."

"Oh goody."

"Plus it's a pain in the ass to break in a new handler."

"Lucky me." The sarcasm in the beta's tone was noted and made the blond snigger for a moment before sobering up and asking.

"Yeah, lucky you. Now what do you need? Just because I won't kill you doesn't mean that I'm patient."

"Right. Have you heard of the government funded 'service omega' program?"

"It's all anyone has talked about since it went into effect. Why?" Clint asked in a slightly suspicious tone. He wasn't all that sure he liked where this conversation was going.

"Well... You know how most of the omega's signed up are signed up in the hopes of maybe finding a mate and stuff."

"Yeah," Clint said, that suspicious tone of his was now hard enough to cut like a knife now. And it made Phil cringe a little bit, though he didn't show it. "They're supposed to be volunteers right?"

"Right. However some of the omega's signed up for the program aren't volunteers. They're omegas that others feel should be punished for not being...proper omegas."

Clint snarled, his lips peeling back from his teeth to show his pearly white fangs as he grit out, " _Traditionalist assholes_." Those people were as bad as religious fanatics. They should all be taken out and shot where it hurts the most.

"Yeah, assholes." Phil echoed worriedly.

He wasn't exactly sure how to get Clint to agree to what he needed him to do. After all, the omega involved was young, untouched, and wasn't there voluntarily. However some bastard had pretended to be her alpha and had signed her up for the program anyways.

To say that she hadn't been doing well in her new environment would be an understatement. She'd already severely injured several alphas that had tried to pair up with her. And with her looks and ripe untouched body- she had many, many more waiting in line to see if they could get their hands on her.

However she was resistant to everything.

The alphas, scenting, being touched in general seemed to piss her off if he were perfectly honest, and if something wasn't done soon- she just might either kill herself or someone else. She was already upset enough about her situation. But yesterday's visit from one of the doctors had just made things so much worse for the poor omega when she had been told that she would be going into heat soon and needed an alpha to take care of her.

The girl had been so livid that she's put her fist through a wall.

Now to be totally clear- it was a solid steel wall at least _five_ inches thick. And the fact that she had punched through it like it was nothing had alerted everyone to her super human status in a very, very alarming way. Fury had been tempted to let her go back home figuring that she might do better there than on the Triskellion.

And technically, he wasn't wrong. She probably would do better there. However there was the fact that the 'alpha' that had signed her up for the program was there, and would likely be torn to pieces for his part in this...fiasco, had left them in a little bit of a conundrum.

So their choices were to either break her into the program she was signed up for- against her wishes. Or, pair her off with a nice alpha that wasn't likely to hurt or rape or abuse her even if she got on his nerves.

Naturally Clint's name had come up at once.

Mainly because of his reputation as both an agent and an alpha. And while he and Fury had also had a slightly long and in depth talk over a couple of drinks about the possible cons of this endeavor, the pros had far outweighed the cons.

The girl would be paired with Clint. And Clint would hopefully not let her run amok and would have someone to finally give him what he needed after so long.

It had been also been agreed upon that Nat was to _only_ be near the girl if she needed a female to speak with. But no more than an hour. Especially when Fury had pointed out that between the two females- they could likely overthrow the government and take over the world.

Of course, Phil was only slightly sure that the director hadn't been kidding. He'd had enough drinks to need help getting home safely. So... _maybe_ he had been joking.

But now in the light of day when he'd been able to think on it more- why run the risk of Nat dragging the omega into her weird antics out of desperation for proper entertainment?

"Phil." Clint said in an slightly pissed tone. His patience with the beta was starting to wear thin.

"Oh sorry, I checked out for a moment there."

"I know. Now what do you need me for?"

"I...kind of have an omega- She's sort of already beaten the shit out of several alpha's that have tried to pair off with her and-"

"And what?"

"Well, to put it bluntly. She isn't here of her own free will, and she's about to go into heat, _and_ she's a super human."

Clint barely seemed to register what he'd just been told before deadpanning automatically, "Nat stays away from her."

Phil nodded his head, "I and Fury completely agree with you there."

Clint took a deep breath to calm his sudden nervousness and looked away from the beta, his icy eyes scanning the room for a moment taking note of just how ill equipped he was at present to take care of an omega before he slowly said, "Let me go and grab my coffee and maybe something to eat and we'll go and meet her."

"Yeah okay. I think I'll grab her something to eat too since she likely hasn't touched the slop that they've been trying to feed her since she got here."

This grabbed Clint's undivided attention, causing him to narrow his eyes slightly at the beta before demanding, "How long?" He could have meant anything from how long had she been there to something else. But luckily, Phil understood what he meant and was able to tell him automatically.

"About a week."

Clint growled, annoyance warring with concern. It wasn't good for an omega to starve themselves. Especially if they were about to go into heat. "Shit. What the hell is- no never mind. I don't want to know." Clint said before reaching out and unlocking his door and motioning with his head for Phil for follow him before he walked out saying, "Come on, I'll help you get some extra food for her."

Phil quickly grabbed the file that he'd put down before and bounded out the door after him saying loudly, "Thanks. I'm not all that certain that I could carry three or four trays of food by myself."

Clint didn't say anything as he cast him a side ways look and then held his hand out for the file and waited until he had it in his hand before flipping it open and beginning to scan it.

There was a picture of the omega attached to the top of the folder so that he could see her face first thing since some alpha's were visually stimulated while others reacted more to scent or sound. He would admit, that despite how upset she looked in the photo, there was no question that the omega was shockingly beautiful.

How she had managed to stay untouched and unmated by any alpha's was beyond him. And then he turned to page ten which had her medical report and he read about the horrible scars on her body where it was suspected that she had been beaten and abused at one point or another over the course of years. Not months, not weeks, not days. _Years._

Making a mental note to see if she would speak about what had happened to her- or at the very least see if she would let him see the scars so that he could figure out how bad they were and plan out how he would handle having her under his care. Clint snapped the file shut so fast that it startled Phil a little bit and caused the older man to trip slightly.

"Something wrong?"

"Have you seen her medical report?"

"No."

"Check it out and tell me what you think is wrong." Clint suggested as he watched Phil open the file to page ten and begin to read it only to suddenly snap it closed again and say,

"Oh. Damn, no wonder she seems to hate alphas and crap."

Clint merely hummed as he tried to think of how best to approach an omega that had been hurt so badly. It wouldn't be easy. Especially if she disliked alpha's so much. But Clint was someone with a shit ton of patience.

Natasha would have died a long time ago if he didn't. That woman was nothing _but_ trouble. Especially when she was bored. Still...he handed her pretty well. So his infinite well of patience with the new omega might do wonders to calm her the fuck down.

Once at the canteen, the two men got in line and Clint finally got a coffee, and some food for not only himself but the omega too. And once they started to leave, he even walked over to a vending machine and bought several various candy bars to add to the dishes on the omega's tray.

"Um...you do know that omega's aren't supposed to eat chocolate. Right?"

"If she's going to be my omega, then she's getting chocolate. End of discussion." Clint said briskly as he brushed past Phil. The beta just stared at him for several heartbeats before falling into step behind him again as they navigated the winding halls of the Triskellion until they came to the omega quarters.

Clint paused for a moment, uncertain of how to react to the smell of distress that saturated the air around one particular door.

"Which one is hers?" He asked Phil warily as he eyed the door a few inches in front of him as if it were a monster from the very depths of hell or something.

"That one."

"I was afraid that you were going to say that." Clint muttered with a small huff as he carefully juggled the two trays in his hands and somehow managed to open the door and then stepped inside.

His heart thudded in his chest and his stomach felt as if it were trying to tie itself into knots as he laid eyes on his new omega. Dear god the picture from the file hardly did the young woman any justice. She was _gorgeous_.

He had expected her to be this pretty and dainty little thing that barely reached his chest. But she- she was actually much taller than he'd expected.

To say that he was pleasantly surprised would be a gross understatement.

She was standing with her back to him, her spine straight, her face turned ever so slightly to peer at him and Phil from over one of her shoulders. Giving him a nice glimpse of exotic turquoise colored eyes from underneath the fringe of long black bangs.

The rest of her hair hung down her back in layers the longest of which fell a little bit above the small of her back.

She had a similar build to Nat's. Not too thin, not too thick, it was lithe like a dancers. Her arms and legs were well toned meaning that she was usually very active. And they drew his attention almost as easily as the rest of her.

Some of her scars were visible thanks entirely to the thin cotton clothing that she had been provided with and he was already resisting the urge to _break_ something or someone- if he could ever manage to weasel a name out of her concerning who had dared to mar her pale skin.

And when she moved so that she could finally face them. She moved like a predator. All quiet and stealthy. So much so that even her clothing didn't seem even whisper.

It was neat, really. And he _would_ be asking her how she moved like that later on. Once she trusted him a bit.

"Who the hell are you two?" She asked in an irked tone that had him smiling like a loon while Phil was silently eyeing the door and wondering if he could move fast enough to make an actual escape if need be.

"My name is Agent Phil Coulson and this is one of my minions-" He didn't get much further than that before he got elbowed in the ribs. And Clint had very hard elbows, so naturally it hurt like a bitch. "I meant underlings..." He wheezed out as he rubbed his side absently and shot Clint a look that threatened swift and painful retaliation if he did it again.

"I'm Clint Barton." Clint said politely.

 _Too politely_. Phil thought to himself as he looked at the man like he'd been suddenly switched out with a pod person. It was on the tip of his tongue to pull the man aside and ask who he really was and where his usual grumpy, weird and psychotic agent was. But one slant eyed look from Clint helped him to manage to keep his mouth shut.

The omega frowned at the two of them and looked back and forth for a moment as if she couldn't decide whether or not she should say anything to them and finally settled on an aggrieved sounding, "Ichigo."

"That's a nice name. It means strawberry, right?" Phil said, latching onto the name and using it as the opening that it was. She ground her teeth together so hard that they could almost hear her jaw pop as Clint suddenly said,

"We brought you some food. If your hungry that is."

"It's not drugged is it?"

"No. But there's also candy bars if you don't trust the cooked stuff." Clint said as he grabbed on and held it out to her. She shifted a little bit closer to examine the plastic wrapped candy bar for a moment before she slowly took it.

"Thanks." She muttered as she moved back to her original place, careful to keep her eyes on them both then whole time. Clint was pissed at the suspicion that he found shining in those pretty depths. An omega should never look at an alpha that way.

They should never have a reason to.

"One second." He said as he put the tray of food that he'd gotten for her, down. and then grabbed one of the plastic forks and took a bite or two of everything on the tray so that she could see that it hadn't been tampered with. Once he was done, he set the used fork down on his tray and switched it out with the unused one and then looked at her almost expectantly.

"How do I know that you aren't immune to stuff?"

The question was softly spoken, yet the implications of what she had just said were no less upsetting. He'd add the info that he'd just gotten to his growing list of things to ask her about later on as he replied with a slight shrug, "You don't. So really you have a fifty-fifty chance of things going either way. But any way that you look at it- you need to eat more than just a candy bar."

She didn't say anything. She just...stared at him as if she were trying to see through him. Nat looked at him like that sometimes. He hated it. But part of him seemed to understand that the omega was trying to figure him out. Maybe even testing him.

And frankly, he didn't want to come up wanting in her eyes.

"Fine. I'll eat. But if anything happens to me- I'll kick the both of your asses."

"You can shoot us both, beautiful," Clint amended with a bright smile before then tacking on, "I'll hand you the gun myself." He wasn't the least bit bothered by the softly spoken threat. Phil however, was since he was looking at him like he was about to have a stroke or something. But that was his problem.

"I'd aim low." The omega warned.

Clint miraculously managed to keep a straight face as he said, "As you should, angel. We're men. And everyone knows that we're genetically geared towards being idiots."

"Speak for yourself." Phil muttered in an offended tone.

"And if I shot your dick off?" The omega asked. Apparently still trying to get a good feel for Clint's personality.

"Then I'd probably done something particularly stupid to deserve losing little Clint." Phil snorted and muttered something inaudible underneath his breath- that Clint heard and _would_ retaliate for later. But right now he was a little bit busy trying to assure the omega that he wasn't going to flip out on her and do something incredibly dumb. "I'm not going to lie, angel. I can be an utter asshole sometimes-"

"All the time- oomph!" Phil doubled over this time as he was elbowed sharply in the ribs again.

"Sometimes. But I'm very slow to anger and easy to please."

Something flashed in her eyes and she hissed out, "Shit. You're _him_." She spat out the word 'him' like it was a curse, making Clint tilt his head inquisitively.

"Him who?" He asked curiously.

"Him. Him. T-The-"

"Alpha?"

"Yeah! That!"

"And that bothers you." It wasn't a question since he could see how easily his presence agitated her.

"I don't like alpha's. None of you understand that no means no!"

He blinked as she practically shouted that at him and made a mental note to ask her yet another question later. He'd even bring her along and use the trip to hunt down whoever didn't know how to take no for an answer, down, so that he could beat the shit out of them. It would be a nice bonding experience for them.

He'd get to hit someone. And she'd maybe realize that he wasn't a bad guy and would feel a bit safer with him.

She yelled a few more things at him in Japanese, and Clint merely let her knowing that it was best to let her get it out now rather than later. While she was yelling at him, he took him gun out of it's holster and took a moment to check the clip and looked up when the room suddenly went eerily silent.

She was as far away from him as she could possibly get in the tiny room with her back flattened up against the wall and a mutinous look on her face that made him freeze up for a second.

He could smell how scared she was right then. The tang of her fear hit his nose with the heavy scent of gunpowder and smoke. Making him feel slightly guilty for scaring her. But there was a method to his madness. And since she didn't feel safe, then the only thing that he could do was _make_ things safe for her.

Once he managed to slap the clip back into his gun, he turned it towards him and held it out to her.

"Here," He stood there for a moment, just waiting for her to take it from him. But she didn't move. Sighing, he rolled his eyes at her a little bit and slowly moved over to her and took one of her hands and placed the gun in it, and then forced her fingers closed around it. "You carry this until you feel safe around me. If I do anything to scare you- then shoot me."

She removed the safety and then lifted the gun and did as he told her to, and shot him.


	2. Chapter 2

A short time later, Clint sat on the bed that had been provided for the omega, watching her curiously as she field dressed his bullet wound and adding yet another question to the ever growing list of questions to ask her about later. In all truth, when he'd handed her the gun- he hadn't actually expected her to shoot him right off the bat.

But being who he is, he had stood there and simply taken it.

Luckily for him, his new omega didn't seem like the type of person that particularly _liked_ it when people suffered. His wound barely classified as a flesh wound since the bullet had just grazed him a bit. However she'd nearly taken Phil out trying to spare him serous bodily harm.

The beta had squawked and hit the floor so fast that Clint had been hard pressed not to laugh at his handler given how shitty his morning was turning out to be.

However instead of laughing, Clint had merely reached out slowly and ruffled the omega's hair and praised her for doing such a good job and being so brave. Any other alpha would have either torn her to shreds or tried knotting her into submission.

Both of which wouldn't have ended well for her since either way she would have wound up bloody. So it was a good thing that he was a nice guy. He could already tell that he and Nat (once she was finally allowed near the girl) would get along famously.

So far, his omega had managed to medicate, clean, stitch and bandage his graze. In that exact order. Which was...more than a little bit impressive if he were perfectly honest about it. Such knowledge in an omega was rare.

Then again, while sitting there watching her- he'd gotten a fair glimpse of some of her own scars while she was up close. So he had a pretty good idea of who had taken care of her wounds whenever she'd been so badly injured. And once he realized that she'd taken care of herself, he hadn't been able to stop the loud, _furious_ , rumbling growl that had escaped him.

He'd startled her with the sound though. So much so that her hand twitched and started to go for the gun that she'd carefully laid well out of his reach- yet easily within her own while she'd been patching him up.

He'd stopped growling almost automatically.

Not out of any sense of fear of being shot again. He had a high enough pain threshold to know that he could take being shot several times point blank without feeling much of anything. But because he hadn't meant to scare/startle her any.

"Sorry. I didn't mean to freak you out." He said after a moment or so as he watched her hand freeze over the gun, but didn't bother to close around it.

She hummed and slowly removed her hand from the weapon and then asked, "You make sounds like that often?"

"Not really. Depends on what's on my mind."

"I see." She looked like she wanted to ask about what had been on his mind to cause him to growl like that this time. But seemed to hesitate and decided not to even bother.

He was certain that part of the reason that she decided against asking was because she felt that he would lie to her anyway. So he decided to tell her what he had been thinking anyways.

"I was thinking about your scars," He said as he pointed to the really bad one on one of her shoulders. Her hand went up almost on reflex to try and hide it as he continued to say, "How you had gotten them. Who dared to lay their hands on you in such a way and who had likely taken care of the injuries. I'll admit to being curious about those things. But I know that you probably won't-"

"I got caught up in some stuff as a kid. Mostly wrong place wrong time sort of stuff. But...occasionally some of my family and friends would get dragged into stuff too..." He stayed quiet so that he could listen to her talk. Noting that she had a very soft, sweet kind of voice. Not sultry or seductive like Nat's. But...innocent sounding. He weirdly liked it and could probably sit and listen to her talk for hours. "A lot of the scars on my body are from being tortured."

The moment that the word 'torture' left her lips, she had his total and undivided attention so fast that it was a wonder that his head didn't spin. He straightened his spine and gave a deceptively relaxed pose when in actuality his body was coiled so tightly that if anyone made the wrong move- he'd likely lash out like a cobra.

"What happened to them?"

He hoped that someone had killed them. He really, _really_ did. After all, alpha's weren't meant to harm omega's in such a manner. It was wrong and went against every instinct that they possessed.

"O-Oh, the others?" She asked in an uncertain tone.

Clint nodded his head since he wasn't sure that he could trust himself to speak at the moment. "Well, we butted heads a little bit. But after we finally managed to sit down together, I found out that they weren't really bad people. They were just in a business where they had to do bad things. So...we became friends-"

There was a loud crashing sound across the room where Phil had been standing a second ago, and the two of them looked towards where the sound had come from to find the beta trying to scramble up off of the floor.

 _The poor guy_. Clint thought to himself.

Phil finally got back to his feet and awkwardly shuffled around a little bit, blushing with embarrassment, before muttering a quiet, "Sorry," And then tacked on a firm sounding. "Please continue."

"I'd rather not if you're going to do that again. I'm not sure if you've noticed by that piece of furniture there is really heavy- and one more flop onto the floor like that could bring it crashing down on you." She sounded just vaguely alarmed by the prospect of Phil being crushed by the heavy wood dresser, so after a moment or so of careful internal deliberation, he moved away from it to sit down on the bed next to Clint.

"You're right. It could. However I'm sturdier than I look." He said to her. She merely thinned her lips for a moment before blurting out,

"So am I. But it doesn't mean that I go around tempting fate if I can help it. Besides, you're old and your bones are frail."

Both Clint and Phil stared at her for a moment or so in disbelief. Phil visibly bristled while Clint hung his head to hide his silent laughter as the beta gave in indignant sounding, "Hey! I am not old! Thirty eight isn't old! Tell her Clint."

Clint merely kept his head down as she replied, "I think he's abandoned you in favor of laughing at your misfortune."

 _"Bastard."_ The beta hissed at him before grumbling something about 'revenge' and then settling down so that Clint and the omega could finish their previous conversation.

"Ah, sorry. That was just-" Clint wanted to say funny but the dark glare directed at his way from the beta stopped him cold. "So...you made friends with the people who tortured you?"

"Yeah."

"How close are you to them?"

"Close enough I guess. I usually see them every other week or so."

"So...there's a chance that they might come looking for you?" Phil asked all of a sudden in a slightly panicked tone.

"Probably," She said with a slight shrug. "It all really depends on what they're into at the moment. But they usually don't like it when one of their own goes _missing_. And I'm a tad bit more noticeable than most-"

"So it's only a matter of time then."

She shrugged her shoulders again, not really knowing what else to say. While she knew that the others would likely try to find her, she wasn't all that sure how long they would look for her and stuff since she wasn't where she had been originally.

Not to mention that this weird new place was difficult to navigate. There were so many damn rules that it made her sick.

Especially since the people of this world were more instinct based than normal humans and tended to take the words 'fairer sex' and 'barefoot and pregnant' to many, many whole new- and _very_ disturbing levels.

And while not everyone seemed to be that way, a good portion of the population was.

Ichigo was trying hard not to judge anyone harshly. But that was difficult when she had already broken up seven very public gang rapes- most of which had been men and women. But the last two had been of children under the age of thirteen. _Thirteen_ for fuck's sake!

Did no one in this weird new place understand that children shouldn't be touched? Did laws to protect them not even exist?

Of course she hadn't done herself any favors by stepping in to stop such things. Especially since she seemed to _smell_ like one of the very people that the assholes had tried to rape. Which had been surprising to her. And even more so to the jack wangs when they'd tried to force her to join in the degradation and abuse of the others.

She'd enjoyed kicking the crap out of the would be rapists, though. Maybe a little bit too much. But she'd enjoyed it nevertheless. Apparently it had shocked them that not only could she seem to resist them and their... _charms_. But she could also raise her hand to them enough to leave them black and blue and bloody where they fell.

So it hadn't been a total surprise when she'd been escorted in cuffs by the locals police and sent to where she was now. She'd heard some of the horror stories and shit about what was done to 'unruly' omegas or even those that were believed to be unruly omegas.

So again, it was no real surprise that she'd wound up in her current situation. But that didn't mean that she had to like it any. And any stupid 'alpha' that dared to touch her got a very vicious and painful rebuff for their stupid behavior.

She was a person. _Not_ a goddamn toy. She did not appreciate people trying to whore her out as a living breathing cock warmer. And she certainly didn't appreciate them planning to 'breed' her and 'mate' her. Which she did not like the sound of at all.

Whatever the fuck that was.

She felt a gentle tug on a small strand of her hair and reached up and snatched the large hand attached to the arm of the alpha currently sitting on her bed.

"Hey, you okay?" He asked in a soft tone. He voice taking on a soothing, almost rumbling sound that kind of reminded her a little bit of Chad's own voice.

"I'm fine." She said quickly as she let his hand go and took a moment to look around to get her bearings. She must have zoned out pretty bad if she felt the need to check her surroundings like this. Even the alpha and the other guy that had come in with him seemed to think along the same lines since they were both incredibly quiet until she finished looking around and turned her attention back to them. "Sorry. I must have zoned out a bit."

"S'alright, angel. It happens." The alpha said gently as he slowly sat back so that he could rest his elbows on his knees.

Ichigo kept getting the nagging sense that the guy wasn't a bad guy. And that it might be in her best interest to stay close to him, even though she could more or less protect herself. There was a lot that she seemed to be really ignorant of at the moment and she knew that learning- while a pain in the ass- would help her to stay out of trouble.

And the guy seemed to be really patient and laid back. So...maybe he could help her?

"Angel?" The alpha said, his tone never changing yet was no less attention grabbing.

"Uh...y-yeah."

"I asked if you were okay with me being your alpha while your here."

"Oh. Oh! Uh...well, we'd have to go over some stuff. Like what you expect and such. Because I don't want to cause any trouble for you and knowing such things ahead of time can help me figure out stuff."

He hummed and nodded his head in agreement. Rules and stuff would be needed as far as what either of them expected. If he knew what she wanted or needed then it would make things easier on them both.

It was normal that as an alpha he would expect specific types of behavior from her. And she from him. So talking was definitely a must. Especially since Phil had mentioned that she had a heat coming up.

"Alright, how about all of us talk about those things while we eat breakfast." He suggested in a friendly tone as he shifted a little bit closer to the edge of the bed and reached out and grabbed a pear off of one of the trays and held it out to her. "Here. You can start with this if you want."

"Really? Cause I've sort of been eying that turkey sandwich on that tray," She said pointing to it the tray in question. "It looks like it has my favorite stuff on it." She said. He smiled at her and grabbed the sandwich and handed it to her.

"Need any mayo or mustard?"

She nodded her head and told him how many mayo packets she wanted out of the small pile on the tray and once she had them, she went about fixing the sandwich like she wanted and started to eat it. It only took her five minutes to finish eating it, and in the process she got some mayo on her fingertips, the tip of her nose and even on the corner of her lips a little bit.

Which seemed to amuse the alpha and his friend since they both laughed at her a little bit as she went about licking her lips and fingertips clean and used a napkin to get the rest of the mayo off of her nose.

"You're a little bit of a messy eater, huh angel."

"Not sure what you expected, I haven't eaten anything in almost a week." She said in a slightly offended tone. The alpha merely smiled at her and set the sandwich from his own tray in front of her along with several mayo packets, an apple to go with her pear, and several different candy bars. At least three of which had caramel in them along with a plastic cup with some orange juice and another with whole milk in it.

She looked at him in a slightly uncertain manner and waited for a moment or so to see if he would change his mind before he tapped her plate and ordered her softly to eat, before she so much as moved again.

The alpha and his friend finished their food long before she did. But only because she was really, really enjoying the BLT that the guy had handed her. She hadn't had a really good BLT in a six, or seven months. So was it weird that she had almost forgotten the way that bacon tasted, and just how damned good it really was?

"Okay, the first thing that we need to go over is how you want to handle your heat." The other guy that had come in with the alpha said.

She looked at the two for a moment and frowned a little bit. She still didn't understand what the hell a heat was. She knew that she was due for her period and it was a pain in the ass to find pads because literally no one in the world seemed to know what they were. But she didn't really understand this 'heat' business.

And she made sure that the two men knew that too.

"What's a heat?"

Both men practically gaped at her in slack jawed disbelief before the one that had asked the weird question practically wheezed out in a choked tone, _"What is a heat?"_ He squeaked out the last word, his voice going a little bit higher than normal while the alpha merely looked at her oddly before slowly asking her.

"What do you think a heat is?"

"I'm assuming that it's something important to you if my question is getting this reaction out of you both." She said in a slightly hesitant tone.

"It is. But what do you think it is?"

"I don't know. That's why I asked in the first place."

The alpha closed his eyes and looked as if she'd just shot him...repeatedly in the stomach. He had such a weirdly pained look and Ichigo was starting to feel a tad bit nervous as he scrubbed his face with his hands and then looked at his friend who quickly jumped to his feet and ran out of the room just as fast as his legs could carry him.


	3. Chapter 3

Ichigo looked towards the door for a moment with a confused look on her pretty face before looking back at the blond and asking, "Why did he just run out of here like the hounds of hell were nipping at his heels?"

"He went to get someone that can answer your questions about you're upcoming heat."

"Really? It looked more to me like he simply wanted to escape." She said wryly, causing the man's lips to quirk slightly in amusement.

"Well, there's that too," He said before suddenly asking. "How old are you anyways that you don't even know what a heat is?"

"I'm twenty..."

"Yikes." He muttered as he stared at her with something akin to astonishment before muttering something inaudible to himself as she awkwardly asked,

"So...how come you haven't run away yet?"

"As your alpha, I need to make myself available to you and help you prepare for your heat."

"Oh."

"You seem disappointed."

"I-I'm not," She stammered out slightly before then saying with a frown. "I just don't really understand."

"I see," He said quietly, his keen ears picking up the sounds of Phil and someone else bickering as they made their way towards the room. He couldn't hear everything that was being said. But he could tell from the other person's tone that they weren't pleased. "Come sit close to me." He suddenly said, hoping that she would comply without asking questions.

However it didn't seem as if she understood why he made his request and he had to get up from his comfortable spot just to grab her up from the floor, eliciting a small yelp of surprise form her, and then re seat himself on the bed with her sitting in his lap so that he could rest his chin on her shoulder and softly whisper for her to stay put.

It was for her safety that he was doing this. And if she wanted to raise hell with him or shoot him again later, then he was fine with that. But right now he didn't like the smell of the woman being brought in to speak with her about her upcoming heat.

Nurse, Beverly Hart wasn't exactly a _nice_ woman. And Phil shouldn't have grabbed the old shrew since she really put the 'itch' in bitch and was likely to traumatize the omega.

He took a moment to breathe in the omega's scent while she was calm and lightly ran his nose along the underside of her jaw. Fuck but she smelled good.

Not like vanilla or cupcakes like most omegas. But more like, oranges, ginger, and magnolia. He'd always been a fan of such smells and now he got someone that smelled just like he liked. The scent was mouthwatering. And if he didn't have half an iota of the restraint that he had then he'd have her underneath him already, breeding her full of his babies.

Finally Phil and nurse Bev entered the room and he took one last deep breath of the omega's scent before then looking at Bev who was eyeing his omega like she'd like nothing more than to slap her cross eyed.

"So, not only do we have an unruly omega here- but one that doesn't know her purpose in life." The woman said as she gave the girl the darkest most malicious look that she could manage. Clint had seen many an Alpha cower underneath that look. And many a Beta and Omega cry from it too.

But strangely, his omega wasn't the least bit bothered by it. In fact she simply smiled at the woman and said in a sickly sweet tone, "Just because you like taking more dick than a glory hole doesn't mean that everyone else does."

"It's you're lot in life to take dick, _omega_." Bev spat at her. "It's what you were born to do. Perhaps once you've been thoroughly broken in and kontted a few times-"

Ichigo reached up to scratch the underside of one of her eyes as she asked almost absently, "How's your teeth? Did you manage to get them fixed after I knocked them out?"

Clint made a loud snorting sound and hid his face as the woman sputtered in outrage for a moment before snarling, "I hope that you get mated by the worst alpha imaginable!"

"Whatever. Get out of my room before I throw you out like last time, you bitch." Ichigo snarled back, tensing up slightly as she prepared to jerk herself free of the alpha's grasp so that she could do just that if she needed too.

Thankfully, she didn't. The woman was already on her way out the door to undoubtedly go crying to someone about her behavior or something.

Phil floundered for a moment or so, looking between the omega and the door before sighing and muttering a few choice words under his breath as Ichigo said, "Well that wasn't very helpful at all." Causing Clint to snigger a moment longer before finally saying.

"No. No it wasn't. She give you problems before today?"

"Doesn't really matter. She isn't my problem."

"No. I suppose not." Clint said as he then asked, "So you really need to know about heat and what it is huh?"

"I could learn what I need just as easily from a book since everyone seems to be so damn uncomfortable talking about it."

They both heard Phil say, "Oh thank god." And then run out the door again. Clint sensed that his omega wanted to ask why the beta'd run off this time, and beat her to it by simply explaining.

"He went to get you a book."

"Oh." Was all that she seemed able to say as she fell silent for a little bit and they both waited for Phil to come back. Upon Phil's return, he walked in carrying various books and promptly dropped them all on the bed next to Clint and then stood back as he said,

"Those were the only books that I could think of that explains what a heat is. some of them even have pictures to help give you an idea of what's what. If those don't clear up your questions- nothing will."

"Thanks." She said as she grabbed the first book and flipped it open and let her eyes scan the first page before abruptly shutting it again and re placing it on the pile and simply saying, "Never mind. I get it. Can you please let go of me now? I think I'm going to freak out."

And she did. Freak out, anyways. She barely managed to escape Clint's grasp before having some sort of panic attack. He and Phil kept a very close eye on her until she finally calmed down some again, after which she crawled into the nearest corner and simply pulled her legs to her chest and rested her head on one of her knees for several moments, not looking too good to the two men before asking, "So heat is basically a sex thing?"

"Yes. Basically."

"And I need to do something for it because..."

"You'll suffer if you don't have some sort of plan to take care of yourself."

"Like what?"

"Well, you can have your alpha take care of and service you-"

"What the hell does that even mean? What do you mean by take care of and service me? Because it sounds suspiciously like you want me to sleep with someone that I don't know or love."

"Uh...w-well, if you don't want to do that then we could maybe drug you to keep you from feeling anything. But I wouldn't totally dismiss the idea of having your alpha service you since he'd be able to give you what you need."

"What do you mean by _service_?" She asked from between gritted teeth. The guy floundered a little bit and looked to his alpha buddy for help.

"Service, is just a nice way of taking care of your sexual needs during heat."

"So sex basically?"

The alpha made a noncommittal sound and nodded his head before going on to say, "You can have an alpha take care of you, toys- as long as your alpha oversees your care before and after it's use while your still in heat-"

She looked as if she wanted to ask why, so Clint went on to explain that without the proper care before and after the use of a toy, irreparable damage could be done to her body from the knot, she could suffer terrible pain and vaginal tearing, and even get an infection that could make her sick or even kill her.

Needless to say, she wanted nothing to do with any toys once he was done explaining things to her.

"So what other choices do I have?" She asked in a tired tone as she reached up to massage her temple, indicating that her head was beginning to ache.

"Well aside from your alpha you could be serviced by someone else- if you have your eye on anyone-"

_"No."_

"But-"

"The answer is no. I won't be serviced by anyone. I'm not sure if you realize this but I have a poor opinion of alphas for a reason."

"Okay, so that's out. We could drug you."

"No."

Both men looked at her oddly again as she said firmly, "No drugs. I like being able to think."

"Angel, without something to help you through the pain you'll likely suffer some sort of mind break or something," The alpha said gently. "Omega's aren't meant to deal with that kind of pain. Especially for extended periods of time."

She scowled at him, and he simply stared right back at her with an unbothered look that made her want to chuck something at his head as she slowly asked, "And just what do you mean by that?"

"An omega's heat will last for a week or more. Depending on the health, and such of the omega, and generally ends when said omega is either totally over it until the next time or their impregnated."

"So I either ride it out or get impregnated? Those are my only two options?"

Both men nodded before the alpha added, "Well, the only two _healthy_ options. There's always the drugs. But you're health might suffer. And then there's always the risk of an alpha coming into your room and-"

"Okay! Enough said! I-I'll...be serviced... But I won't like it any." She said the last part in an almost sullen tone as the alpha slowly stood up and simply said gently,

"I understand."

Not long after that, the alpha tore the thin blanket off of her bed and used it to wrap her in so that he could move her to her new 'home'. Ichigo wasn't going to lie and say that she particularly liked the fact that the alpha had carried her off after wrapping her up like a human sized burrito.

And she certainly didn't enjoy the feel of his arms around her as he had carried her off. In fact, she downright _loathed_ it. After all, it wasn't like she suddenly forgot how to use her legs or something. She wasn't a lazy person either. But she figured that if she was going to more or less be stuck to the guy then she needed to make the best of the situation and hope that nothing else happened to catch her off guard.

After all, she could stand certain things. Like sleeping with a total stranger. It wasn't as if it would be all that hard. It was just...she wasn't used to such things and often didn't know how to react.

The guy that had been picked out by someone else to be her alpha was a fairly handsome man.

He was young, just a few years older than herself. Maybe no more than six or eight years if she wanted to be exact. He had pleasant features, short blond hair, pretty blue eyes, a chiseled jaw, thickly chorded muscle in his arms, over his chest, a flat stomach and long legs.

He was tall too.

Almost three inches taller than her. Which she totally wasn't used too because aside from Chad, Kisuke, and Kenpachi everyone else that she knew were practically midgets.

So she was sort of trying to get used to him. Because again, he really didn't seem like he was a _bad_ guy or anything. But she couldn't help but worry about what he expected of her. Or what he might expect from her in the future.

Once he entered another room a fair distance away from where her previous room had been, he gently placed her on her feet and then stepped back a little bit as she looked around for a moment.

"This will be you're new home until you adjust a little bit to having an alpha," He said softly. "Once you've gone through your heat, I'll take you to my actual home. You'll like it. It has a _ton_ of space to move around in."

"It sounds like we'll be avoiding each other."

He chuckled softly at her words and then said, "No, no, angel. No avoidance, I swear. The space is mostly for any future children that I and...uh...we...m-might-"

"Oh."

"Yeah. I kind of bought the place four years ago," He said awkwardly, his face turning a nice shade of pale pink as he went on to say. "It's a little bit of a fixer upper, but...I like it. It has tons of room for k-kids to run and play. And I've even fixed up a nice nesting room and stuff, just in case I ever met a nice omega that I wanted to mate. But this works too so maybe it won't sit empty for much longer."

Ichigo felt a weird pain in the vicinity of her heart, yet smiled anyways.

It sounded as if he had his whole future planned out. And then she had to come along and ruin things for him. She felt bad about that. But at the moment there wasn't a whole lot that she could do- or rather there wasn't much of anything that she felt _safe_ doing.

"I'm sorry." She said catching him slightly off guard.

"Don't be. This arrangement might actually work out for the best," He could see that she felt badly about being pushed onto him and he wanted to assure her that he really didn't mind. In fact, he sort of already _liked_ her company quite a bit. So even if things didn't work out for the best between them, he'd still sort of be attached to her. He'd likely drive people crazy trying to find her a good mate and stuff. "The entire point of the service omega program is to help both the omega's and the alpha's who work at Shield to find their mates."

"Hn, I see," Was all that she could think to say before she felt his hand settle on the small of her back and gently nudge her a little further into the room. "What are you doing?" She asked in sudden alarm. Hoping to god that he wasn't wanting to sleep together so soon. She wasn't prepared for it!

"You need to explore while I find my touch pad. You'll need some clothing and stuff for while your here since those thin cotton things your wearing now barely qualify as clothing. You'll need blankets and stuff as well as hygiene products for your stay. Enough to last you a while since I'm not sure what will happen."

"But I want to make sure that you're well taken care of. So once I find my touch pad, the two of us will sit down and order a bunch of stuff for you. And then after that, if you want you can curl up somewhere and nap for a little bit and when you wake up- I'll bring you some more food. Does that sound good?"

She nodded her head slowly and he smiled at her before then waving her off.


	4. Chapter 4

Clint watched his new omega subtly as he pretended to look for his touch pad. His mind going over every detail that he'd noticed about her so far and...coming up with a _ton_ of fucking questions. One of which was, how could she have not known what a heat was at her age?

Had she been on suppressants all this time? Using them to push her nature aside in leu of being able to live a bit better life? Her functionality as an omega was certainly off.

In truth his omega seemed totally _oblivious_ to the fact that she even was an omega.

Which was troubling to him since it meant that she would need to be watched especially close just to make sure that she didn't get herself in a situation that she couldn't get herself out of. And then there was the fact that she was easy on the eyes despite her scars.

So alpha's would probably be lining up to challenge him for her once they found out that she wasn't up for grabs anymore at the moment.

There were other things that he'd have to watch out for too, but for now he was content to simply let her take her cues about how to behave from him and vice versa.

The talk about her heat had been a little bit of an eye opener for him.

He'd _never_ seen an omega have such a...a breakdown before at the mere idea of being serviced by an alpha during their heat. So there was a lot of trust issues among other things that he would have to address. Hopefully before her heat hit since anything unaddressed before then would be considered a violation to her.

He would also have to scent mark her within the next day or so. He couldn't even let her out of his sight before then since it wouldn't be safe for her, even if he let her keep his gun on her. That and he was fairly certain that Fury would start riding his ass if she shot a bunch of his agents dicks off.

But on the other hand, she seemed to handle the weapon well. And as far as he knew, it was practically unheard of for an omega to be taught how to use a weapon of any sort. Which made him _increasingly_ curious about just how familiar she was with handling weapons and other things.

He made a mental note to take her to the gym at some point to test her so that he would know exactly what she could do. And whether or not he should sleep with both eyes open from now on.

He stilled a little bit as she wandered over to him, coming up behind him and dangled his touch pad in front of his face. "Lose something?"

"Oh," Was all that he could manage. Which was really lame of him since he'd been messing around with his bed sheets in an effort to pretend to be looking for it. "I wondered where it got off too since I was sure that I left it here in the bed somewhere." He said as soon as he recovered enough to take it from her and glance at her to check her expression.

She looked...sort of like Fury when he wasn't amused by something. Which meant that even she was aware of the fact that he was lying to her. He could have kicked himself. Truly he could have.

But instead he simply gave her an apologetic look as she huffed.

"You ready to shop?" He asked lamely.

She merely cast him a side eyed glance and muttered, "Whatever." And then seated herself on his bed and crossed her legs so that she could prop an arm up and rest her chin in one of her hands.

"Okay then," He said as he seated himself next to her, careful not to get too close to her as he turned on his touch pad and then pulled up the internet windows that would suit his purposes the best and then handed the device to her. "Why don't you start browsing a bit. And when you find something, you can either let me know if you need to know whether or not it's something that you might need, or you can just go ahead and put it in the shopping cart."

It took her less than an hour or so to find clothing in her size. And she made sure to cover all of the bases too. It was all seasonal, and casual attire. Practical and comfortable- there wasn't a single frigging thing in the shopping cart that even _he_ could consider frivolous.

She hadn't even bothered to look at the formal attire to pick out some pretty dresses for herself! Honestly, Clint was just as shocked by this fact as he sort of _wasn't_. Especially since his omega didn't seem to be the type to like formal stuff. She was too much like Nat.

So instead of buying everything right off the bat for her and letting her continue her shopping, he checked her cart to see what size clothing she wore. And then picked out at least _three_ nice dresses for her and then purchased everything.

Next was some shoes, jackets, gloves, scarves exct…

She went through that site fairly quickly and got two light coats, one leather jacket, three pairs of boots, two pairs of slip on shoes, one heavy coat, three pairs of gloves and no scarves to speak of.

Once he added a few more things to that one and purchased it, he handed the touch pad back to her and let her continue.

This kept on for a little bit longer before his omega finally decided that she was done and simply handed him the touch pad and decided to meander off somewhere. He watched her go with a frown on his face knowing that they damn well weren't done with their shopping at all.

They still had to find and pick out some normal omega stuff. Hygiene products, special soaps, lotions, shampoos and conditioners, tooth brushes and so on. They also needed to pick out some soft pillows and blankets and such for a nest since she'd need those for when she went into heat.

However since she'd walked off and didn't seem that interested in continuing, he heaved a sigh and decided to do it all himself. If she had a problem with it later then he'd do what he could to fix it. But somehow she didn't come across as the type who cared all that much.

So maybe whatever he picked out for her would be okay?

It took him far longer than it ever took her to pick anything even remotely decent out because he didn't understand some of the differences in some of the stuff. Everything looked okay to him. But everything was advertised differently. What was the difference between soft and _soft_ anyways?

Was one more comfortable than the other? Did the people manufacturing the shit give a group of pre heat omega's some stuff to test out? He didn't get it. So when in doubt, go with your gut.

Or at least that was what he usually told himself.

So, he'd bought some 'buttery soft' rabbit fur blankets and pillows and some silk-ish looking stuff and a half dozen pretty pastel purple, blue, and mint colored blankets and matching throw pillows for her to make a nest out of. And then once he was done, he tossed his touch pad aside and buried his face in his hands and just sat there praying to god that he never had to 'nest material' shop again.

Honestly, it was exhausting.

They had gotten a lot of stuff done and he'd see to it that as much as the material was delivered straight to Shield as possible so that she could have it sooner rather than later.

But they still needed to get some sleeping attire for her. And somehow he got the feeling that if he handed her the touch pad on a site that had slinky silks and sexy looking lace garments- that she'd either chuck the device at his head or punch him in the throat.

As it was he'd have to remove his gun from her possession before he tried to even approach her with the idea of getting some sleeping apparel and _don't_ even get him started on trying to explain to her why he needed to buy her a collar to protect her throat.

He knew without a shadow of a doubt that she really would shoot him then. And he wouldn't have a mere flesh wound this time.

Finally he decided to go and see if he could find where she had gotten off to, and stood up and tilted his head back and subtly sniffed the air for a second. She smelled calm again, so her scent was easy to pick up and follow.

He found her in his little man-cave, looking over his extensive movie collection with great interest and seemed to even be sorting some of it. There was a growing pile of really, really gory and graphic horror movies sitting on the floor next to her leg.

"Angel?"

She jumped a little bit and accidentally dropped the DVD that had been in her hand and let out a small yelp as it clattered to the floor, case and all, and looked at him wide eyed in...trepidation? Did she really think that he was going to flip out on her over something so easily replaced? He wondered as he stared back at her curiously.

She made a weird face and then bent down and gently collected the fallen DVD and case and took a moment to check them for any damage before placing the disk back inside it's case and setting it back on the shelf where she'd found it as she muttered, "Sorry. I- ah...didn't mean to do that."

"What were you doing?" He asked as he stepped into the room and eyed the curious little pile that she had made.

"Oh, um...when I was little my dad and I started a tradition of sorts where we'd sit and watch horror movies all night long and bond over them and junk food and stuff. He'd even send my baby sister's to bed just so that we could have our movie night."

"Oh?" He said, focusing on the way that she spoke about her family and childhood. He didn't know anyone stupid enough to show omega's such things as horror films. They tended to upset their delicate sensibilities and give them nightmares and stuff.

"Yeah. We started to do it after mom was killed," He turned his head to look at her. "She uh...died when I was eight. Some jerk with an ego problem decided that since she married my dad- he'd kill her. I was with her when it happened but couldn't do anything to protect her."

"You were eight." He pointed out gently. Deciding that it was a good enough reason for her not to be able to save her mom. And to most people it would be a good enough reason. But not to her.

"I was also being formally trained to fight. So even though I was eight, I _should_ have been able to do something. Even if it was just something as small as distract him."

Clint clenched his teeth so that he wouldn't open his mouth and ask what the hell she was doing being formally trained to fight at such a young age. He knew that her designation hadn't likely presented itself at the time, but there were other things to point to her being an omega that her parents shouldn't have been able to ignore.

Either that or they simply hadn't cared.

"Dad was devastated. He really loved mom. But he was very afraid of what was going to happen next. So he pulled me aside and started to train me to fight too," Clint was careful to keep his expression carefully blank as he heard this. Despite the fact that he was quickly starting to become angry enough to try and find her father and beat the hell out of him. "He wanted me to be able to take care of myself just in case the guy came back later on."

Clint blinked, suddenly understanding then. It lessened his anger somewhat. But only just so.

"Did he come back?"

"Yes. When I was thirteen. We were visiting my mom's grave as a family. It was...another tradition that we had. The guy had been in the area and saw us. I think he recalled me from when he killed my mom, because he attacked my dad and sisters while I was walking through the woods. My dad got knocked out. And my two sisters were alone to fend for themselves," Clint swallowed hard, dread settling in the pit of his stomach. "He hurt Karin. Who was lying on the ground bleeding when I got back- I ran all the way there once I heard their screams. They were so loud and frightened. I got to them as fast as I could but by the time I got there- Yuzu was already dead. He'd...torn her in half like an animal." It was hard to miss the way that her voice caught and Clint found his arms lifting to wrap around her.

He hugged her close to him, and tried to sooth her with a rumbling sound that was meant to calm and sooth omega's in distress and simply held her for several minutes until she seemed to calm down enough to keep talking.

"Dad and Karin were beside themselves. And I...sort of just checked out mentally. I didn't speak, didn't react, I didn't move, or really care about anything after that. Dad and Karin found out right away that they couldn't help me. So they both invited my closest friends over to see if they could help me. They all practically moved in with us."

"My best friend is a guy named Chad. He's...a...big guy. Bout seven foot six or something. Tall, built- he got teased a lot as a kid because he's so damn big. And despite the fact that he looks like the devil incarnate, he's a really nice guy. Soft spoken. Gentle. He has a soft spot for anything cute. Kids, animals, girls, boys, elders- he doesn't really discriminate. To him, cute is cute. Nothing else matters."

"He especially has a soft spot for me and my family. I was one of the first friends that he ever made. And he was sort of attached to my dad and sisters too. So when he heard about what had happened, he dropped everything and practically ran to the house and stormed into my room to see if I was okay. And once he realized that I wasn't, he just sat down next to my bed and told me that everything would be okay. He'd take care of me, my dad and Karin until I was better again."

It was wrong to feel any sort of jealousy towards the affection that she had for her friend. And under normal circumstances- he probably wouldn't have cared overly much. But since she was supposed to be _his_ omega, he did. He cared a fucking lot about the affection that she had for some unknown male that could possibly be an alpha and considered competition to him.

So he did the only thing that he could think of, even if it would probably get him into trouble. He used his hand to force her head to the side and he pressed his mouth to her own.

So naturally it didn't shock him all that much when she squirmed in his grasp and somehow managed to turn around enough to slap the hell out of him.


	5. Chapter 5

Lukily for him, he had known what was likely to happen long before he pressed his lips to hers. So he'd managed to somewhat dodge the blow. Though his cheek still stung pretty good were her hand _had_ connected- it wasn't nearly as bad as he had expected.

He absently rubbed his sore cheek as he scowled a little bit at his omega. But his expression quickly changed to one of semi panic once he caught the sheen of unshed tears in her eyes.

"Oh crap." He muttered, stiffening slightly where he stood and dropped his hand almost automatically just in case she wanted to slap him silly again for making her cry. However she just dropped her head and brushed by him and left the room. Leaving him both greatly confused and puzzled.

What the hell was that? He wondered to himself as he did some impressive mental gymnastics and went over everything from beginning to end thus far in an effort to see what had really caused her to start crying. Because she hadn't even cried earlier during her little breakdown about her heat.

Sure she had looked like she wanted too. But she hadn't.

But then again, maybe she was just upset because she had a lot dropped on her today? It wouldn't be the first time that a new omega got overwhelmed and lashed out. Though the others mostly handled their being overwhelmed with cuddles or something. He almost envied the fact that his omega was more into physical violence instead of cuddles.

 _Almost,_ was of course, the operative word here.

But despite how badly he might sometimes wish that she were more into cuddles, he knew that he wouldn't change her for anything. Violent streak or not.

They'd work their way up to cuddles eventually. Right now he needed to...either A) get the hell out of his living quarters for a little bit. Or B) Check on her.

He was leaning more towards A than B at the moment. But only because of his self preservation instinct. Still...he stood there for a moment or so longer weighing the pro's the con's. And also wondering if his will had been updated recently while simultaneously coming up with a plan to maybe get back into her good graces?

Once he was done being stupid, he knelt down and grabbed a few of the horror movies that still lay on the floor and also grabbed some less gory and bloody movies and a couple of comedies and then went to find her. The whole reason behind her going through his movie collection had been because she had thought that it might help them bond over something together. And that fact hadn't been lost on him.

So...despite his better judgement as far as the horror films were concerned, if she wanted to have a movie night and bond- then that was exactly what they would do. He would even break a vending machine and steal a bunch of junk food and snacks for them if she wanted.

It wasn't like it would be the first time that he'd done such a thing. And Fury rarely spoke of such occurrences anymore when he was involved. So he very much doubted that he'd be yelled at for it.

He felt ridiculous sneaking through his own living quarters to find her. And even more so when he would duck behind something and move along it's length until he could peer around the corner to see where she was. After all it wasn't like his living quarters were insanely huge or anything. And he really didn't have that much furniture and stuff in it.

Aside from his bed, his dresser, his desk, a couple of chairs, a coffee table that doubled as a dinning room table- because he tended to eat on the floor like a savage- his man cave, some book shelves, his flat screen tv and of course the bathroom and small kitchen area where he sometimes tried to cook his meals if he didn't want canteen food or junk.

But aside from those, he really didn't have a whole lot to hide behind at moments like this. So in all honesty...he wasn't all that sure what he was doing aside from making a fool of himself.

His omega was messing with his bed. Straightening out the sheets or something? He wondered before then wondering what the hell was wrong with his sheets? He could make his bed like a marine! He didn't leave any lines or anything. So what the hell was she- His train of thought sort of trailed off once she shifted and he saw a cardboard box sitting on the floor next to the bed.

Oh. _Oh!_ It looked like some of the stuff that they had both picked out online had been delivered already. He would have figured that despite the rush he paid for that it would take at least another five or so hours. But this was nice too.

It turned out that she wasn't really messing with his bed at all. She was fixing her nest for when she went into heat. And he was so proud of her for doing so- despite her obvious confusion about the fur pillows and stuff- that he could have _purred_.

Omega's were utterly adorable to watch when they were making their heat nests. So he very much doubted that he'd need to hide anymore. Slowly straightening his spine so that he was back upright completely, he walked over to where she was and just stood there for a moment off to the side, just watching her.

She had the cutest little frown on her face as she held up one of the silk sheet sets and then turned her attention to the blankets.

"Everything okay?" He asked curiously, noting that she jumped a little bit upon hearing his voice.

She slowly turned her head to look at him, and he was both shocked/not shocked that she didn't look pissed because of what had happened before. "I'm going to have to get a bell for you." Was all that she managed to say.

He didn't bother to tell her that Coulsen had tried putting a bell on him a few times because he got tired of him randomly ambushing him for one reason or another. He also didn't bother to tell her that just because he had a bell on him, didn't mean that he'd make any noise. He'd perfected that art a long time ago.

But if she wanted to put a bell on him, he'd make a little bit of noise. But _only_ for her. Everyone else could fend for themselves as far as he was concerned.

Clearing his throat softly, he tried asking her if everything was okay again since his question went unanswered and he was sort of starting to feel... _anxious_ that maybe he should have simply gone with the soft stuff instead of the buttery soft stuff.

"Everything is fine," She finally said after several moments. Allowing him just enough time to start to break out into a cold sweat before she bothered to put him out of his misery any. The little monster. "I was just trying to figure out what exactly I'm supposed to do with it all. It's not really that cold in here," Her observation sort of caught him off guard since omega's generally didn't notice a whole lot beyond what their alpha either told them or allowed. "And I'm assuming that the two of us will be...um...s-sharing the bed?"

He gave her a curious look as she squeaked out the last few words there. Was she really still that _nervous_ about something that was supposed to be natural to them both? If so then it was no wonder that she had slapped him for kissing her.

"Yeah. Sharing is easier." Was all that he said before tacking on, "You can do what you want with the stuff. I can take being a little warmer or something." He was lying, of course. And alpha's body was built differently from an omega's and as such their temperature tended to run just a bit hotter. But none of that mattered.

He wanted to encourage her to keep making her nest.

"Well, I want to be practical about this. I mean, it's your bed, and if your uncomfortable- I'll feel bad. Plus there's also the fact that if your too uncomfortable it could effect your work and how you function..." Ah, now he understood the problem a little bit better.

She was trying to be considerate of his own needs. Deeming them more necessary then her own.

He tried to think of some way to let her know that he'd be fine regardless of what she did for her nest but instead wound up blurting out in a rude manner, "How do you function?" He wasn't trying to be rude, despite his tone. Or even hurtful. He was genuinely curious how as an omega- she seemed to function so very differently than what he was used too.

"I-I'm sorry. What do you mean?" She asked with a frown.

"How do you function from day to day? You're behavior patterns are _alarmingly_ neglectful of your own needs." He said with his own frown as he gave her his undivided attention.

"My behavior is perfectly normal for me. I've always been this way." She said in a slightly defensive tone.

"Why did your alpha never-"

"I've never had an alpha before!"

They both fell silent. She was practically shaking with rage and he- he was just... _stupefied_. Astonished, maybe? The gears in his head were turning rapidly as he tried to understand how it was that a twenty year old female omega had never had an alpha before. The idea alone was laughable since omega's needed alpha's to survive.

Surely one of her parents had been one. But if so- then why was she so ignorant of what she was and how she was supposed to behave? He supposed that there was only one way to find out. Reaching out, he gently took hold of her hands in his own and forced her to drop the blanket that she'd been holding as he demanded that she tell him everything about herself.

She couldn't leave anything out at all. He needed to know where she came from. How her family members treated one another. How her friends treated one another- every single detail that she could give him might explain _everything_.

* * *

Clint walked out of his living quarters almost two hours later nearly thoroughly convinced that his omega had A) been brainwashed. B) Had lived in an alternate reality where designations and secondary genders simply didn't exist. Or C) She had been raised by a really weird progressivism practicing cult.

He was leaning more towards option C than option B at the moment. Not that either one wouldn't have explained things a tad. They would have. But sadly only one of them made any actual honest to god sense to him at the moment.

Walking down the hall towards Phil's office, he couldn't help but feel the need to tell him this crap since it sounded so fantastical that it just didn't seem real. Besides, after the morning that the beta had had, he might need a good laugh or something.

Not that there was anything funny about having one's omega raised by a cult. There wasn't. When it came to cult's Clint only had one viable saying, _Coolaid kills_. And at the moment, his omega was suffering from prolonged and possibly _harmful_ exposure to said coolaid.

And he needed someone to talk too about this...unusual development before he decided to start shooting random people in the halls just to vent.


	6. Chapter 6

Nat was in Phil's office trying to pump the beta for information on the weird rumor that she had caught floating around about her partner and friend. "So...is it true?" She asked curiously as she picked up a collectable Captain America bobble head up off of the beta's desk. "Does Clint have an omega?"

Phil eyed her nervously. Or more specifically the bobble head of his favorite hero that she was holding.

"I..." He wanted so badly to just tell her yes and grab his bobble head figure, but if he did he'd have a pissed off director and even worse, a possibly pissed off Clint breathing down his neck. And frankly both were far worse for his health than Nat could ever hope to be. "Do not negotiate with terrorists." He finally said after a little bit of a lengthy pause.

Nat gave him an irked look and simply said, "A pity. You could have saved the Captain." And then snapped his bobble head's head clean off causing him to scream in utter _horror._

Nat merely tossed the once collectable piece into the trash and reached for one of the action figures of Captain America that he kept on his desk and started to ask the same question again as the beta man just sobbed in his chair.

That collectable died too.

Because as much as Phil desired to save his collection of vintage one of a kind toys, he liked living even more. And he knew that if he sold out Clint's new omega, the alpha was likely to dangle him upside down over the side of the triskelion by his ankles, while it was flying again. And this time, he might actually drop him.

And then there was Fury. He didn't want to piss him off either.

Fury, Clint and himself all had perfectly valid reasons for not wanting Nat anywhere near the omega girl. Nat was a good agent, definitely one of the best like Clint was. And she was a good friend and all. But she had very specific habits and skills that Clint probably didn't want his omega to pick up from the woman.

Another action figure died with an audible snap and Phil whimpered in distress as Nat tossed it's broken remains away too.

That and the woman was just plain _evil_. There was no telling what kind of crap the omega girl would pick up from her if they were allowed to meet and befriend each other.

She got up from her place on his desk and pulled one of her throwing knives out and turned her attention to the life sized cardboard cut out of Captain America and got a maniacal gleam in her eyes that made the sobbing man go utterly still in his seat. A disbelieving, barely audible 'no' leaving his lips when he saw her smile.

"Don't you dare Nat." He said warningly. It was one thing for her to go after his collectable action figures and bobble heads. It was another entirely to go after his life sized cut out of his hero. "If you so much as breathe on that thing- _I._ _will. kill. you._ " He hissed from between gritted teeth, entirely serious.

He really would kill her if she did anything to it. That was his baby _. Nobody touched it and lived!_ Not even one of his minions!

Nat just smiled sweetly and wound her arm back, preparing to throw the knife at it when Phil surprised even her by suddenly scampering over his desk, knocking his computer and a few other things aside in his haste- and then tackled her to the floor with a fierce sounding growl as his lips peeled back from his fangs warningly.

Nat let go of the knife automatically because she knew that she had pushed just a little bit too far with the beta male as the door to his office suddenly opened and Clint stepped into the room.

If Nat thought that Phil was being aggressive now- the man had nothing on Clint. The aggression rolling off of the alpha should have, by all rights, sent everyone on the entire triskelion into a full blown panic. It wasn't often that the almost beta-esque natured alpha got so angry. But when he did, people tended to avoid him lest they become victims to his wrath.

And right now, the man was practically _seething_. His normally clean scent was ripe with smoke and dark spice that anyone within a mile of him would have been able to pick up on easily.

So suddenly finding themselves in the same room with the angry alpha was a bad thing, even for the two them. Phil was the first one to snap out of his temper tantrum and push back on the urge to tear out her throat as he turned his head to look at the blond as he stepped a little bit further into the room and then closed the door behind him.

The two beta's flinched a little bit the moment that the door closed with an soft and barely audible clicking sound. Though the door had slid closed like usual, to them it had been the same as listening to having the door slam shut. The sound echoed so loudly in their ears that it almost drowned out the pulsing of their hearts beating like drums.

Phil rolled off of her and jumped to his feet. And let Nat slowly get to her feet as well so that they could both face the alpha.

"Clint? Alpha?" Phil said in a tentative tone before asking cautiously, "What's wrong?"

Clint just stared at the two of them for a moment or so. Just long enough for the two beta's to start planning their escape from the room or Clint's very untimely demise- either way they would be screamed at by Fury- before the alpha suddenly blurted out in a pissed tone, "My omega was raised by a cult!" And then he tore the nearest chair that was bolted to the floor of the office from it's place and then threw it out the large window behind Phil's desk.

Both Phil and Nat looked at the alpha and then each other with grim expressions and subtly reached over and shook hands as they both mouthed the words, "Been nice knowing you." And "You'll die first, I swear it."

* * *

The moment that nurse Bev had stormed out of the service omega's living quarters, she had gone straight to the nearest alpha that had been beaten by the girl several days before and told him that she now belonged to Barton because she knew that it would piss Rumlow and the alpha's on his team, off.

After all, he had been planning to knock the bitch up and then share her with his friends as a means of stress release since she would have no choice once she carried his offspring, but to bow to his whims. So naturally knowing that she was beyond his reach, snatched up by that pussy of an excuse of an alpha, Barton- sent him into a rage.

However he calmed down considerably upon learning that she was going to start her heat any day now. And then left him to plan what he wanted to do.

After all, even omega's that didn't know their place tended to become indiscriminate with their desires once their heat hit. They didn't care which alpha serviced them. They didn't even care if it was some random alpha just looking for a hole to fuck.

All they could think of was being knotted.

Barton's bitch would be no better. Bev was sure of it.


	7. Chapter 7

Ichigo wished that she could say that having the alpha practically storm out of the room once she was done speaking was a surprise to her. But that would be a lie. She wasn't surprised that telling him that she came from a place where people had no secondary genders or designations, and were just _people_ , had upset him.

After all, this weird place seemed to place a lot of stock in such things. Maybe a little bit too much actually.

She came from a place where people were treated as equals. Equality was a long ways off here. Kind of like evolution beyond the _archaic_ way that those in power thought.

The laws here protected those who were born Alpha's and Beta's. The two designations were treated like they were made of gold. Treasures beyond compare. When in truth- omega's needed to be protected from them because they were _monsters_.

Monsters created by nature. Monsters created by society.

Monsters that swore to protect and yet _lied_ at every turn and hurt those weaker then themselves all because of their overinflated egos.

There were no laws here to protect those who were constantly _used_ and _abused_ by a horrifically flawed system. And the people who felt as if they were entitled to others just because the laws protected them and let them get away with it.

They didn't know what it was like to be afraid. To be hurt for no reason at all. To be used and passed around as if they was no better- and had no value- beyond that of a living breathing doll. _They didn't know what it was like to be assaulted and told that it was for their own good while their alpha's patted themselves on the back for causing them irreparable harm._

In all honesty, Ichigo was utterly disgusted by the way that things were here. And had on more than one occasion since coming to this place, had contemplated either escape or death.

Either one might be better than having to suck up the emotional turmoil and physical suffering that went with being bonded or mated against one's will. She was a firm believer of _death before dishonor._ And there was a _lot_ that she considered to be dishonorable about these people, their laws, their traditions and how they treated those weaker than themselves in general.

She was surprised that the omega's of this world hadn't banded together to _kill_ everyone just to free themselves from the tyranny of their supposed 'betters' yet as it was. She was still on the fence about whether or not she wished to stay long enough to see that happen just so that she could point out that hindsight _was_ a bitch.

Huffing quietly, she wondered if the alpha was going to decide to punish her or something. After all, alpha's didn't seem to like being mouthed off to. Especially by those that were believed to be omega's. But then after several moments of careful thought, she decided that it didn't matter even if he did.

She could give as well as she got- if not more so.

So she had little to be concerned about there. If he was going to hit her, then he would have done it when she had shot him. And again when she had slapped him for kissing her. But since he hadn't, she figured that she was fairly safe. Especially since he'd had enough presence of mind to leave the room once she had stopped speaking.

Biting back a yawn, she glanced longingly at the bed and then scowled. She was tired. Today had been...distressing to her. Especially that crap about her upcoming 'heat'. So naturally she was feeling just a bit more fatigued than usual.

Shaking her head, she huffed again and wondered how long he would be gone before then deciding that she needed to go and use the bathroom.

She'd had to go for a while now and had been holding it because she wasn't all that sure how thin the walls were here. That and she was not a huge fan of people listening to her do her business. The last time someone had heard her taking a piss, she'd been so embarrassed that she had ripped the toilet up and thrown it at said person's head.

She'd never heard Renji scream so loud before. She'd never seen him covered in quite that many bandages before either. Kisuke had nearly _died_ laughing at her.

The jerk.

Walking into the bathroom, it took her a moment or so to find the light switch and flick it on. Once that was done she took a second to scan the bathroom, noting that it was just like the bathroom of a small apartment. Which wasn't bad, just a tad bit cramped that was all.

Walking over to the toilet, she put the seat down and then went about untying the knot that was holding her sweat pants tightly around her waist and then froze up when she noticed the red stain on the inside of the cotton.

"Crap." That was literally all that she could say since it looked like her period had just started. Of course it was quickly followed by the curious wondering of, _If a heat turns alpha's into horny hormonal messes- then what will my period do to them?_

She wasn't sure that she wanted to find out.

* * *

"Y-You're omega was raised by a cult?" Was all that Phil could manage to squeak out as he stared at the unamused blond alpha from the safety of the other side of his desk. Semi out of the other man's reach.

Nat had long since bailed on him, _the bitch_ , leaving him to deal with Clint's emotional turmoil all by himself. Which wasn't quite as bad as it had first been when he'd arrived. Sure he was still pissed, it simply wasn't rolling off of him in waves anymore.

Clint merely slowly nodded his head at him. He'd calmed down a bit after breaking Phil's office window. Not a whole lot, but definitely enough to answer the beta's questions.

He'd been there for the better part of an hour explaining everything that his omega had told him to the beta and waiting for the man to say _something_ \- and all he'd heard so far was Phil say that she was raised by a cult. Nothing else. Just that. Which was all kinds of disappointing to the alpha since he'd come for advice on how best to handle this new variable in an already messed up situation.

"You're omega was raised by a cult." Phil said again. He sounded less like he was asking a question now and seemed to be more certain. Either that or he simply like repeating the words over and over again. Which couldn't be the case since he was a lot like Fury and _hated_ to repeat himself.

"Ohhh, that's so bad." Phil said next both sounding and looking as if he were trying hard not to cringe some before then asking. "So she really doesn't know anything? Nothing about being an omega? Nothing about heats? The laws? Why omega's need alpha's to survive?"

Clint heaved a pained sounding sigh before muttering in a low growling tone, "No," And then asked. "Any advice?"

"Yeah, find out where her people are. I want to see the mother ship."

Clint clenched his teeth so hard that the muscle in his jaw jumped as he glowered at the beta.

"Oh come on! You can't honestly say that you aren't curious to know how any of them _functioned_!" Phil said defensively. Clint merely narrowed his eyes at him and then huffed quietly and then turned on his heel and headed for the door.

Tossing an irked sounding, "Unhelpful. Phil." Over his shoulder as he slipped out of the room and decided to go and check on his omega. He'd been gone long enough for his temper to cool a bit, and she was likely getting hungry by now. He'd stop by the canteen and grab them both some junk food to snack on, some dinner and drinks and then head back to his living quarters to see about that movie night that he had failed to mention before.


	8. Chapter 8

Clint was on his way back from the canteen with his and the omega girl's- he really needed to ask her what her name was again. He disliked constantly referring to her in his head as 'omega'. It was downright _wrong_ and _disrespectful_ of the young woman that might bear his children. Or even soon become his mate.

That and he was pretty sure that if he accidentally called her that- especially while he was servicing her during her heat- she'd slap him cross-eyed.

He'd managed to get quite a bit due to the fact that he had stripped his shirt off to turn it into a make shift bag to carry the junk food and some drinks and stuff in. And their dinner was going to be pretty damn good too since he hadn't been able to make a distinct choice between one thing or another and had simply grabbed them both six main dishes, several sides, some fruit, and several bottled sweet tea's to go with their food.

He just hoped that she didn't mind all of the stuff that he'd grabbed. He sometimes sucked at making choices for women. So he hoped that his omega wasn't going to be super pissed at him for not getting her a bigger salad or something, cause after going nearly a week without food- the girl really needed some fattening up.

The extra calorie intake would help her during her heat. Especially if she was too out of it to do more than take some water here and there.

Speaking of, he wondered if she'd finished making her nest since he left. He was sort of curious to know what his bed was going to look like all made up and stuff. While he'd serviced omega's before during his time in Shield, he'd never actually had one stay with him long enough to nest and stuff. So he was just a tad bit curious about how things would turn out.

He also still worried that he might not have gotten her soft enough materials for her nest.

Walking around the corner, he suddenly paused in mid step when his hindbrain automatically took notice of the sweet magnolia and orange scent that permeated the air around where his living quarters were.

"Oh shit." He muttered before quickly making his way to his quarter's door and then paused again to check the hallways for any alpha dipshits that might have smelled his omega's heat scent, and decided to try their luck stealing her from him.

Luckily, aside from a couple of beta's further down the hall, there wasn't anyone else around. Which was good. He would have hated to have to tear a few people's throats out just to get to her and secure her.

Taking a moment to subtly scent the air around his door, he could tell that his omega had likely started her heat a little while ago. So she wasn't totally in the throes of it yet and should still be able to eat something and tell him exactly what she wanted as far as mating and children went, just to clarify things a bit more for him, before things go rougher on her.

Also, since it had just started, he should be able to handle sitting there and listening. So that was good too.

Opening his door, he was quick to slip inside his living quarters and then slam the door shut again before quickly popping a panel out of the wall next to the door and initiating safety protocols for his living space, just in case.

One had to admire the way that Shield took care of their people. He mused absently as he finished putting in the codes and then placed the panel back in the wall where it belonged.

With the codes and protocols in place, if anyone dared to try and enter his living quarters while he was busy taking care of his omega- they would not only be dead before they hit the floor, but a loud alarm would go off that was directly liked to both Phil and director Fury's pagers, just in case they had friends with them. Allowing for help to arrive hopefully before anything too terrible happened.

Once he was done, he turned to survey his room for a moment and frowned when he saw that his omega hadn't really done much of anything as far as a nest went. She'd placed a few fur pillows here and there from before. But not much else.

She hadn't bothered with the silks, or the other furred stuff or even her blankets.

_What the hell has she been doing?_ He wondered curiously as he walked over to the coffee table that he used as a dinning room table and set everything down so that he could go and look for her unencumbered.

Moving through his living quarters on silent feet, he checked the man-cave, his kitchen and was heading for the bathroom when the door suddenly opened and his omega stepped out of the cramped room wearing one of his overly large purple shirts, her long hair was damp, and her skin was flushed slightly like she'd just gotten out of the shower and he could smell her even more.

Dear god, her heat scent was _amazing_. So much so that he wanted nothing more than to sink to his knees in front of her and bury his face against her stomach and inhale that amazing smell until he was dunk off of it.

"Oh, your back," She said the moment that she caught sight of him standing just a few inches away from her. "Are you feeling a bit better now?" She asked as she reached up to flip some of the hair that had slipped over one of her shoulders, back into place behind her.

He watched the small action with hungry eyes before catching himself. "I-I should be asking you that, shouldn't I?"

She made a curious humming sound, her expression telling him that she didn't really understand what he was going on about and he could have happily strangled someone for never teaching her any of the things that were _imperative_ to her survival. Truly he could have.

"You started your heat." He pointed out gently as he took a moment to look her over for any signs of distress or discomfort. She looked startled by his words as he took a small step closer to her and lifted his hands so that he could touch her.

He didn't bother asking for permission like he probably should've. Permission was the last thing on his mind at the moment. He'd beg her forgiveness later and hope for the best just in case he overstepped a bit too much as he gently framed her face in his large hands and took a moment to gauge whether or not she was okay.

She felt...feverish to him. Not terribly so, but just enough to make her feel warmer than normal. He'd say that her temperature was at a semi uncomfortable ninety nine point five.

"How are you feeling?" He asked, concern bleeding into his tone.

"Warm. A little bit sweaty. But aside from that, okay."

He nodded his head curtly and slowly removed his hands from her before asking, "Think you can manage to eat something before we...you know?"

She took a deep shuddering breath and her scent was suddenly laced with fear. _Fear_ for fuck's sake! His omega should never fear him! If anything she should feel safe, protected, and cherished by him. He was her protector and provider, after all. The one who would never harm her.

And yet- and yet so far she had only seen the worst of alpha's. So her fear wasn't totally unfounded. Especially since she didn't yet know him very well.

He tried not to feel hurt or uncertain or even guilt about his own behavior towards her. But it was hard not too considering how she was brought up so differently from other omega's that he was used to. And didn't understand that his actions were normal.

"I- uh, yeah. I can eat, I guess." She said after several moments of hesitation. He nodded his head and then stepped back some to let her move past him. Making sure to keep his hands at his sides instead of reaching out to touch her again like he longed to.

"The food is on the coffee table in the bedroom." He said softly as she moved several steps away from him. She paused for a moment to glance at him from over one of her shoulders and then nodded her head in understanding before she started moving again. He waited until she was in the bedroom before he finally moved from his spot to join her.

Upon entering his bedroom, he found her sitting on the cold hard floor with her legs tucked underneath her sorting through some of the food to see what she wanted.

"Do you want a pillow to sit on?" He asked after a moment or so. Thinking that she might appreciate a pillow more than she would the floor in her current state. She told him that she was fine and quickly confiscated one of the BLT's that he had grabbed as an alternative. As well as a bowl of tomato soup, some fruit, a couple of dinner rolls and several mayo packets and a plate of salad.

It wasn't quite what he'd expected her to eat for dinner. But he wasn't going to force her to eat more than she was up to eating at the moment since it might make her sick.

"I hope that you don't mind drinking sweet tea," He said as he gracefully dropped into place across from her to start sorting through his own food. "I grabbed some several soda's and juice's too. If you can stand them."

"Tea is fine. I might want a juice or something later to keep hydrated." She said absently. He made a thoughtful humming sound, secretly pleased that she was thinking of ways to help him take care of her during her heat. "You should also set a few of them aside to...keep yourself hydrated." That last part startled him a little bit. Mainly because no omega had ever thought ahead to what _he_ might need when they were under the influence of their heat before.

He opened his mouth to tell her that he'd be fine, but she suddenly muttered something about checking his fridge for bottled waters and maybe something for him to eat too and then stood up and walked off. Leaving him practically gaping at the space that she had been sitting in moments prior.

She was gone for a total of two minutes before returning to the bedroom just as he was starting to get up and go and find her and sat back down in the same place that she had been before and laid several bottled waters on the coffee table next to their food along with some other things.

Some fruit, apples, oranges, and pears that he had totally forgotten that he even had. Some trail mix stuff- that was obviously Nat's since she had the bad habit of hiding girly shit among his food items without his knowledge. Some granola bars. Pecan and snickerdoodle cookies. _Where the fuck_ _had she found those?_ He wondered as she set them down along with some peanut butter and half a loaf of bread and some plastic containers to put all of it in.

"There. Once I'm done, you'll have some stuff to eat just in case you can't go and get anything later." She sounded kind of proud of the fact that she had found stuff for him. And he wasn't going to lie any, he was sort of proud of her too. Though for glaringly different reasons.

The fact that his omega was willing to try and see to his own care during her heat meant that she saw him as a viable mate. It was...flattering really.

He still wanted to know where she'd found those granola bars and cookies though. But filed the question away under 'questions for later' as she started to put his future 'meals' together before she ever bothered to touch her dinner.

And in that time, he was content to sit and watch her work. His fascination towards her growing by leaps and bounds. She was such a sweet omega. Tough when she needed to be- or when she felt threatened- but sweet the rest of the time.

Propping his chin in his palm as he watched her, he couldn't help the small amused quirk of his lips as she kept getting peanut butter on her fingers and had to pause making his sandwiches to lick the stuff off with a small irritated scowl. When she was finally done, and everything was in it's container and set aside to be put up, she started to eat.

It was a good thing too since her scent was already getting headier and more mouthwateringly attractive to him.

Clearing his throat, he searched his mind for a topic that he'd planned to speak with her about before suddenly blurting out, "What do you think of children?" His question must have caught her off guard, he could see it in her expression as she hurried to swallow what was in her mouth before she could choke on it and then croak out a startled sounding,

"What?"

"Children? What do you think of them? Like them? Hate them?"

"I like kids." She said after several heartbeats of silence before then tacking on. "After mom died, I helped my dad raise my sisters. I also took care of some of the neighborhood kids from time to time."

"W-What about babies? What do you think of them?" He asked as he stared at her. Watching her body language carefully for any kind of a tell or lie as she replied,

"I like em just fine."

"Alright... And what about mating? What do you think of that?"

"I think that with the right person, a...mating would be nice." There was a wealth of honesty in her words, but also a great deal of uncertainty that he didn't know how to put at ease.

"And with the wrong person?" He felt the need to ask, even if it seemed like a stupid question.

"With the wrong person- one of us would die. I won't stand for a man putting his hands on me in violence. Or using my body against my will. I don't care who he is. Or what I feel for him. I refuse to live the rest of my life with someone who will hurt me just because he thinks he can."

Clint mulled over what she had just told him _carefully_ before slowly nodding his head in agreement and understanding. Mating to the wrong person could be an absolute nightmare depending on how one was treated. So he could understand why her 'mate' would die if he/she didn't treat her well.

It might be a bit extreme. But he could understand where she was coming from nevertheless.

Which brought him to his next question. "If- If I slip up and accidentally mate you, would you hate me?"

"Is that something that's likely to happen?" She sounded slightly alarmed at the mere thought of an accidental mating. And as much as he wanted to assure her that it wouldn't happen- he couldn't. An alpha's instinct was a tricky thing. Especially when in the heat of the moment when their control was barely hanging on by a thread.

Accidental mating's _did_ happen. Was he proud of that fact? No. But it did happen, just the same and he wanted to know her thoughts on the matter just in case.

He nodded his head somberly and waited patiently for her to answer him.

"Well, if it was an accident, then hating you would be a little bit excessive. Even I know that accidents happen. But I won't lie and say that I might not be upset if it happens. I would be since I've always imagined loving the person that I wind up with very deeply. I would feel cheated. And I know that I can't speak for you, but something tells me that you would probably feel something similar."

He made another humming sound, knowing that she was probably right as she suddenly asked, "H-How exactly are you planning to...uh...go about...stuff."

He raised a brow at her, inwardly amused by the fact that she couldn't even seem to say the word 'sex' without stammering and blushing as he slowly said, "I thought I'd start by becoming familiar with your body. What feels good to you and what doesn't. Some kissing, touching and petting might help."

Her face positively flamed, it was so red.

He smiled at her, making sure that his amusement at her reaction was clear in his expression and quickly had to duck when she threw her bowl of fruit at his heat causing him to crack up laughing.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Warning*
> 
> Ichigo is on her period when Clint beds her. And while there is barely any mention of the blood, Clint will likely notice later.

Once she was done eating, Clint motioned her over to the bed where he insisted that she finish her nest and then waited for a little bit while she messed around until she finally huffed and told him that she was done so that he could go over and check it out.

She still had one of her pastel blankets, and some silk sheets on the bed this time. Which wasn't terrible. But he doubted that the blanket was terribly soft. He even did the touch test to double check. And he was right. The blanket, while nice and fluffy-ish enough to keep her warm if she got cold- was certainly not soft enough to be considered good for her during her heat.

Her skin would be far too over sensitive to be able to tolerate the rough and slightly scratchy material.

So after casting a unamused look her way, he pulled the blanket off and grabbed one of the fur ones and used it as a top cover and fixed it the same way that she'd had the blanket fixed after which he'd stood back and studied his work with a critical eye before saying, "Okay, that's done. Now come here and test it out."

She looked at him, and then the bed, and then him again. Her mind seeming to balk a little bit at the thought of rolling around on his bed while he watched.

He might have found her modesty adorable if her heat scent wasn't starting to get to him a little bit. As if was, he'd been hiding his erection for a while now. And it was starting to fucking hurt.

His clothing was starting to bother him too. And as patient as he needed to be for the main event- he was worried that he might not be able to go as slowly as he needed to if she kept dragging her heels.

I mean, Jesus, was it really that hard to climb into bed with a nice, handsome guy? He wasn't sure if he found her shyness endearing or annoying. It was probably fifty-fifty at the moment.

"W-Why do I need to try it out?"

"To make sure that it suits your needs."

"It's a bed. I'm sure that it's fine either- _eek_!" She let out a startled little shriek when he grabbed her in a lightening fast move that she couldn't track and gently tossed her onto the bed and they hovered there with his arms crossed over his chest as he watched her bounce twice before settling. After which she just lay there on her back with a slightly peeved look on her pretty face as she glowered at him.

"How's it feel?" He asked curiously.

"Like a bed." She gritted out from between clenched teeth.

He sighed, knowing that trying to get a straight answer out of her would be like pulling teeth from a crocodile. "Alright. Stay put then. I'm going to ditch my shirt and shoes." He said as his hands went for the hem of his shirt and started to pull it up over his head when he heard movement on the bed. Quick, frenzied, and then there was a thud as his omega's back hit the wall.

He dropped his shirt away from his face just enough to _look_ at her, taking note of her freaked out expression as the scent of distressed omega filtered through her heat scent. He didn't make a sound as he pulled his shirt off and then dropped it onto the floor at his feet before he then toed his shoes off and moved to sit down on the bed.

Once that was done, he reached out and grasped her wrist and gently tugged her until she practically toppled over into his lap and used one hand to keep her there by pressing lightly between her shoulder blades while he used his free hand to play with her hair a little bit.

He was sweet about it, knowing that she deserved nothing less from him for her first time.

He ran his blunt nails along her scalp, and tried to suppress his smile when he felt her whole body twitch underneath his palm. "W-What are you doing?" She squeaked out after a moment or so of anxiously watching him grasp a strand of her silken hair and wind it around his fingers and then release it only to repeat the motion again and again.

"I'm playing with your hair. It seems to have a little bit of a calming effect on you," He said gently before then tacking on. "I think it has a bit of a calming effect on me too."

She twitched again under his hand as his fingers combed through her hair again before saying hesitantly, "Music usually calms me more than skin to skin contact."

"I can play you some music if you need me too." He offered.

"I-I don't think it'll really help right now."

"Your wound up pretty good, huh?"

"Wouldn't you be?"

"No. This is instinct to me."

"It isn't to me. In fact this pretty fucking scary."

His hand stilled for a moment as he gazed down at her sadly before slowly saying, "I would suppose this is rather scary for you." Her upbringing coupled with her lack of knowledge about even the most basic of things concerning her nature wasn't doing her any favors either. But he didn't blame her for that.

He blamed the cult that had raised her.

"I'm going to take this as slow as I can for you. But I'm worried that your heat scent will make me lose control sooner or later. And I don't want to accidentally hurt you," He said before then saying, "I need you to sit up for me and let me settle you straddle my lap so that we can get started."

She let out a pitiful sounding whine that had his heart squeezing painfully in his chest as he slowly let her sit up. He had thought that he'd have to direct her to sit as he had wanted, but once she was up she slowly crawled into place and settled herself in his lap.

His mind went haywire on him for a second.

Apparently the sight of her slowly crawling into his lap was a major turn on for him. It should have been impossible, but he could have sworn that his dick got that much harder. At this rate, he'd be cutting diamonds with it.

"I'm going to have to touch you, sweetheart." He murmured as he studied her face. She was blushing such a pretty pink color for him.

"Do what you have to." Was all he got from her in response. So he took that as permission.

Reaching out, he cupped one of her cheeks in his hand and turned her head so that she was looking at him before he leaned forward and softly pressed his lips against her own. Unlike the kiss from before, this one was gentle, and coaxing. And unlike the previous kiss, she seemed to respond better to this one.

He could tell because when he finally pulled back a little bit, she didn't try to slap the shit out of him. She did however look a little bit dazed to him.

"Still doing good, angel?"

She hummed and he smiled before pressing his lips back to hers, deciding to kiss her a bit more thoroughly this time as he skimmed his fingertips along the slender column of her throat, eliciting a shiver from her as he slid his tongue inside of her mouth and tried to bite back a groan at the heavenly taste of her.

His angel tasted so damn good.

She was all honeyed sweetness and spice on his tongue. So delicious and perfectly addicting that he could barely stand to come up for air even for a moment. He wanted more, more, _more_.

He wasn't sure how many times he claimed her lips, but by the time he realized that the he had her smaller body pinned underneath his own on the bed, she was completely breathless and clinging to him. Her small hands tightly gripping his shoulders.

He made a purring sound and trailed kisses from the corner of her lips to the underside of her jaw where he opened his mouth and latched onto the tender flesh and lightly sucked it into his mouth. Causing her breath to hitch slightly as she turned her head so that he would have better access to her neck.

His purr got louder as his mouth left her skin for a moment to check the damage he'd just done. He'd left a mark on her that was a lot like a bruise. Though not nearly as painful. Once he was sure that he hadn't hurt her any, he ran his tongue over the abused area and began pressing kisses to her skin again.

He only got more frenzied from there. He couldn't help it any. Everything from instinct to common sense to desire and want was warring within him. Each thought and feeling desperately wanting satisfaction from the soft and delicate omega underneath him.

At some point he managed to have the presence of mind to slip a hand between their bodies to touch her wet core. Carefully stroking and fingering her to completion at least twice before finally growing impatient to be inside of her.

He didn't really recall what happened to his pants. Or the fact that he tore his shirt off of her. He vaguely recalled her shocked gasp of surprise before his head was between her legs, his hungry mouth devouring her as she reached down and grabbed a hand full of his short hair in her hands.

_God, she tasted to good!_ He thought as he slowly lifted his face from her dripping core and licked her juices from his face like a hungry cat. He didn't notice any of her menstrual blood mixed with her body's sweet cream. And it wouldn't have mattered any even if he had.

He was too far gone to care.

Running his callused hands along her long slender legs, he gripped them behind her knees and lifted them so that he could drape them over his shoulders as he moved himself into position and let his eyes flicker to her face to find her watching him almost anxiously.

He leaned over and pressed his mouth against her own for a moment and muttered in a guttural tone, "This is gonna hurt some." She reached up and ran her fingers along her lips and cheeks as he slowly started to press himself inside of her.

She did good at ignoring any discomfort that she felt. Really she did. She barely made a sound or twitched at all until he ruthlessly tore through her hymen and then went still. She bit her lower lip to keep from screaming in his ear. Which he appreciated, until he realized that she had bitten down so hard that her lip was bleeding.

"Oh sweetheart," He said in a breathless tone as he ran his thumb along the bleeding flesh of her lip and sighed as he buried his face against her shoulder. "I'm sorry."

"S-S'okay." She muttered as she lifted her hands to run her fingers through his hair like he had for her earlier. He moaned softly and pressed several open mouth kisses to her skin before asking if it was okay to move yet.

He felt more than saw her nod, and gave a small experimental thrust of his hips. Eliciting a breathy gasp from her, the sound was encouraging. So he went with it and set a slow, easy pace.

She was so tight around him, her inner muscles clung to him. Squeezing and clamping down on him as if she were attempting to milk him. It made it difficult for him to keep going slow, but somehow he managed until she asked him to move faster, harder- _right there!_

By the time she started to cum again, he barely caught himself before he almost clamped his teeth down on her mating gland. But he managed to turn his head away from the temptation of doing so at the last moment and instead buried his face against her shoulder again at the exact moment that she clenched just right around him.

He shuddered as he felt her nails score his back and shoulders and held himself as still as possible once he managed to work his knot into her.

His knot kept them tied together for thirty minutes before finally going down enough to allow him to separate from her. And in that time, he pressed kisses to her face and temple while praising her for taking his knot so well as she began to drift off to sleep, held cradled against his chest.


	10. Chapter 10

Despite how far gone he was, Clint was still able to take note of various things about his omega's body.

For instance, she bled.

It had freaked him out the first time that he'd noticed, because no matter how instinct driven he was at the moment, blood was bad. Very _bad_. And he'd run and gotten the first aid kit to...wrap the injured part of her body? But after she had told him that it was normal for her, he'd calmed down enough to notice that with the blood- her heat scent was _heavier_ and more intoxicating. It penetrated _everything_ around it.

His bed, her nesting stuff, the furniture, their clothing- it even somehow penetrated the steel walls and floor of his living quarters.

He didn't realize this right off the bat of course, but he took note of it after the third round of mind blowing sex while he was stretched out behind her, trying to catch his breath. He had dozed off at some point and woken up smelling her even though his face was pressed up against the wall.

He'd been a tad bit puzzled at first, but after just lying there for several moments breathing against the cool metal- he'd managed to put two and two together pretty quickly. And yes, he'd been a tad bit alarmed at first. But had decided that he'd see what happened from that point on so that he could make sure it didn't affect himself or his omega adversely.

If it started too- he'd have his room chemically cleaned until there was no trace of it anymore.

Another thing that he noted, was that she wasn't wet like she should have been once her heat started. It was part of the reason why he'd taken such care with her. He'd wanted her to be completely prepared for their coupling so that he didn't hurt her.

Normally when an omega started their heat, they were so wet that they left small puddles wherever they were. Their slick tended to soak everything. Their clothing, their nest- it ran down their legs to let their alpha know that they were ready for them and their knots at all times.

It made servicing them easier.

His omega didn't get slick like that. Which was more than a little bit alarming/confusing to him. Or it had been anyways. He'd almost put a hold on the main event once he realized that she wasn't slick with want. If not for his instinct guiding him, he could have done her irreparable harm when he tried to service her with his cock and his knot.

Another thing that he noticed was that she was so unbelievably small. If he hadn't used his fingers to stretch her some, he doubted that she would have been able to take him at all, much less his knot.

He was also finally able to see her scars.

He'd known and anticipated that anything that was a product of torture would be bad, but bad would be an understatement. Her scars _disfigured_ her. Not so much that they would be considered something to reject her over. He wasn't such a shallow man that he would reject an omega over something like that.

But it still made him livid with rage just how many scars she had. Many of them on her torso overlapped so that he couldn't even _count_ them all accurately.

Once he'd spent several minutes tracing the ones between her breasts and then he'd spent two in a half hours fucking her into his mattress and came dangerously close to sinking his teeth into her mating gland before he could catch himself.

Luckily she seemed to either know that he was close to mating her or she simply wanted his undivided attention. Either way he found his head being jerked back and her mouth hungrily claiming his own as he knotted her again with a loud vicious sounding growl that vibrated in his chest.

Afterwards, the two of them lay curled up together while he lightly trailed his fingertips along her back and she asked him why he hadn't mated her. He wouldn't lie and say that he understood _why_ she had felt the need to ask him that. But he gave her the most honest answer that he could.

And she thanked him for it before burrowing her face against his chest and dozing off. Leaving him lying there, blinking back tears and thinking about how she had thanked him for not taking away her right to choose for herself- and _knew_ without a shadow of a doubt that he was in deep trouble here.

He took a moment to tangle his fingers in some of her silken hair and lift it a little bit before letting it slide from his grasp only to repeat the action over and over before confirming- yup, he was definitely in deep trouble here.

But he didn't seem to mind that fact too much since he _liked_ the idea of being in over his head for his omega.

* * *

They fell into a little bit of a routine between the first and second day of her heat. He took care of her bodies needs as thoroughly as he could. Trying to remember everything that she needed. Food, water- or in her case water and juice- when she was sore, he let her direct him so that he could take care of her. He found it a little bit peculiar that when she was sore, she didn't want to copulate and instead asked him to just hold her.

Which he did happily, since it was a task that she had asked of him specifically. Though he did keep a careful eye on her just in case her heat began to hurt her.

He was no expert, but he'd heard that the cramping and stomach pains could be a real bitch for omega's and were also damned impossible to ignore. And he was proven right about that when her stomach started to hurt. However instead of letting him knot her again, she simply took one of his hands and settled it over her stomach and then curled her body around it and slept.

_Slept!_

He was so startled that she could manage to ignore hundreds of billions of years worth of instinct that he started to keep a journal about her differences compared to the differences of other omegas.

He was sure that by the end of the next day, that by the time her heat actually finished up, he'd probably have enough to publish. He'd written so damn much stuff down that it was absolutely mind boggling, even to him.

The third day came and went, uneventfully. On the fourth day however- her scent changed about an hour or so after he'd last serviced her. He noticed the subtle shift in her scent even in a dead sleep.

He'd been so surprised by it that he'd woken up _immediately_ so that he could appease his own curiosity and had pressed his face against her bare stomach and inhaled deeply. Catching a nose full of magnolia, oranges, and... _him_. It was slight. And not really all that noticeable unless one really _knew_ what they were smelling but it was there nevertheless.

His hindbrain and instinct practically went to war inside of him as he had snatched up his sleeping omega, startling her awake as he set her in his lap and pressed kisses to her face while he laughed, cried and purred loudly in contentment all at once.


	11. Chapter 11

It didn't take a genius to figure out why the alpha was action so oddly around her after that. Nor did it take a total genius to figure out why her period had stopped sooner than expected. After growing up in such close proximity to the clinic her dad ran, she knew human anatomy almost as well as he did.

Which meant that the alpha had knocked her up.

And as much as she wanted to be pissed about that fact, he had been fairly upfront about things. So she couldn't exactly say that he had lied to her about his intentions when he hadn't. Even she had known that there was a strong possibility of pregnancy.

So all she did once she noted his behavior, was huff softly and then tell him that she'd like to maybe get cleaned up. She'd spent several days in his bed sweating and having sex and being covered in bodily fluids that had dried on her skin.

She felt gross.

Of course she hadn't expected him to practically scamper off to collect her clothing and stuff and then run her a bath before returning to scoop her up in his arms so that she didn't have to walk to the bathroom. Despite the fact that she insisted that she could.

She also hadn't expected him to stay with her in the bathroom and try to wash her either. And after a semi long-ish and somewhat mortifying battle of wills, he'd scrubbed her damn near spotless while leaving her crotch area untouched so that she could clean it herself since he wasn't all that sure how to do it.

And then once he was done washing her, he'd gone and seated himself on the counter and simply told her to soak for a little bit while he hung out and kept her company.

If any other man had ever dared to treat her so embarrassingly- she would have drowned him in the toilet. Really she would have. But...she already knew that the alpha was instinct driven and his behavior probably had something to do with that and there was no point in being upset or angry or pissed at him for it.

All that would do is leave her feeling crappy and exhausted.

Besides, she was more than a little bit curious about what he was going to do now. So far he had been treating her like she were made of spun glass. Like she were something treasured, cherished and fragile. It was...nice. _Weird_. But nice nevertheless. Especially since no one had ever treated her like that before.

"Is the water too warm?" He asked suddenly, his voice cutting through her thoughts like a knife.

"No. It's just right, thank you."

He hummed softly as she shifted a little bit so that she could pull her legs up to her chest in the water and asked, "You got something on your mind?"

He had a lot on his mind. Not a whole lot that he wanted to share at the moment. But he could probably stand to talk about what she wanted and then maybe try going from there.

"A few things." He finally said after a heart beat or so of silence. "Like...what do you want to do? I mean, w-where do you want to go from here?" He watched her cock her head, her expression curious and slid off of his perch on the counter and dropped down to the floor next to the tub so that he could look her in the eyes as he asked, "Do you want to mate? Or maybe find a place and move in together?"

"We still don't know each other well."

"I know. I just..." He let his voice trail off and let out a small whine instead. Hoping that she would understand what he was trying to say since his brain didn't seem to be working well enough for him to speak his thoughts quite that well.

"Want a family." It wasn't a question. Merely a softly spoken fact. He stared at her for a moment in surprise and then nodded his head solemnly, worried about what she might say next.

"And if you regret it later? After all, I'm not the easiest person in the world to live with." He knew that already, so he didn't bother to say anything just yet as she went on to say. "I'm not terribly submissive. In fact I'm downright violent, which is something that I doubt that you appreciate all that much."

It was true. She was those things. However he was perfectly fine with that. He _liked_ that about her even, and not just because he saw her behavior as something of a challenge in desperate need of correcting either.

But at the same time she seemed to forget that she was also sweet, caring, and kind.

After all, how many bad tempered omega's would bother to try and warn someone off for what he perceived to be their own good? Because that was what she was trying to do here- tell him that she wasn't the one for him so that he could find someone better suited for him. Someone who was better behaved and more submissive.

 _God,_ if only she knew that he'd eat someone like that alive within a week. He couldn't stand simpering little misses. They were clingy, far too damn nice- they were fucking doormats. He liked the fact that she would slap him cross eyed or even shoot him if he stepped out of line with her.

He found that quality about her...well... _attractive_.

Very attractive.

"I'm not an easy person to live with either," He said with a shrug. "And I like the fact that you aren't submissive."

"Well you would be the first," She said almost bitterly before tacking on. "I'm not overly fond of people beating the shit out of me because I refused to bow to them and stroke their egos." The words were softly spoken, yet there was a noticeable bite to them that angered him. Not because it was directed at him per se. But because she felt the need to mention it at all.

 _That_ pissed him off. So much so that he could barely bite back the loud, angry growl that threatened to tear itself from his throat along with a demand for names. He'd hunt them all down and make them regret ever laying their hands on her.

She reached out and cupped his cheek with one of her hands and told him to _stop that_. She told him that it was over and done with and she was wary of placing herself in such a position again. Especially while pregnant.

He calmed down almost automatically at the mention of their baby as understanding dawned on him.

She was worried. He could empathize with her. Truly he could. She was wary of placing herself in a potentially _bad_ position with him. One where she could be abused, and hurt again. She was trying to think not just of the safety of herself but of the baby too.

And as much as it kind of hurt him to think that she might think that he was just like the others who had hurt her before, he was also more than a little bit pleased with her for thinking of their baby.

"We don't have to mate if you're against it. We could just..." He was going to say move in together so that he could take care of her and their baby unhindered. But she sort of cut him off with an idea of her own.

"Date?"

He blinked at her, unsure of what to think about the idea of courting. It was a tad bit outdated. In fact courting was rarely done at all nowadays since alpha/omega paired usually knew what they wanted before they mated.

Still...refusing the idea of courting would put them in the precarious position of having her find another alpha. It would also endanger her and their baby since he very much doubted that her next alpha would allow her to remain pregnant long enough to give birth to his child. And he definitely wouldn't want to raise it.

"Courting it is then." He said once he had weighed all of his options. Courting was the lesser of many evils here. And would give him and his omega both a chance to get to know each other far better than they already did and would likely end in a mating.

She smiled at him and then slipped her hand away from his face so that she could hold it out to him as if to shake and said, "I'm Ichigo Kurosaki. Your new...girlfriend."

He smiled at her, catching on to what she was doing easily as he took her small hand in his and shook it and introduced himself as well. "Clint Barton. Your boyfriend, and...baby daddy."

"Nice to meet ya."

"Same." He said in amusement as she took her hand back and put it back in the water and then asked in a small really soft tone,

"What do we do now?"

He laughed at the question and leaned in so that he could press his lips to her forehead for a second before then sitting back and saying, "Let me go fix the bed and straighten up a little bit. And then if you want- we'll have a movie night."

Her response was a relieved sounding, "God bless you man, now get out so I can finish my bath." That damn near had him doubled over before he could get up to go and do as he said he would. Happy that things were slightly resolved between them.


	12. Chapter 12

A few days later, Clint decided that it was about time that he took Ichigo on a tour of the facilities as she was getting dressed for the day. He'd bought several collars online the same day that he'd noted the changes in her scent indicating her pregnancy- but he'd waited until after she'd fallen asleep after a couple of movies to do it.

So he already had the collars in his possession. Now all he needed to do was explain what they were for and then let her choose one before he took her outside of the room. It sounded easy in his head. But it was anything but easy.

He kept balking at the thought of her getting pissed at him or stressed out due to her violent tendencies and the baby. But he was pretty sure that she'd be even more pissed at him once she realized that she was living like a prisoner inside of his living quarters since he couldn't let her out _without_ one of the damn things on to protect her mating gland.

"Hey, Ichigo…" He started as she tugged her shirt down over the waist of her jeans and then looked at him. "I was wondering if you wanted to get of the room for a bit today."

"Sure, sounds...fun." She cringed a little bit, not knowing what else to say or what exactly he had planned.

He caught the small action and gave one of his own. He was pretty sure that on a triskelion there would be little of interest to her. The fact that she was willing to entertain the very notion of feigning interest just to get out for a bit spoke _volumes_ to him about how restless, cooped up, and trapped she must be feeling at the moment.

"Right, sorry. I- uh... I didn't mean for you to feel so-"

"Restless." She supplied helpfully.

His lips quirked slightly in amusement before he amended, "Trapped. Held hostage maybe?"

She shrugged her shoulders and suddenly blurted out, "When you've seen the inside of as many prisons as I have; you've practically seen them all." And then upon realizing what she'd just said, quickly covered her mouth with her hands and looked at him in alarm.

He went from semi relaxed to tense in the blink of an eye. The idea of his omega having been imprisoned at some point or another made him feel both very angry and deeply concerned.

"D-Did someone lock you-" He started to ask her if someone had imprisoned her at some point but she cut him off with a quick sounding.

 _"Fuck no."_ Even he didn't believe that lie. Especially since it was such an obvious and terrible one.

"Angel-"

"I said no. Now please, _drop it_."

He growled softly and made a mental note to ask her about the subject later and then decided to move on. "Alright. I was planning to take you on a tour of this place but I need you to do something first-" And here is where dead began to churn in the pit of his stomach as he reached over and picked up a black leather jewelry case. He'd bought more than one collar for the simply fact that they were multi functional.

The one in the case that he currently held was designed to look more like a choker than a collar. Which was what made him think that she might like it more. Made of white gold and platinum with beautiful scroll work and clear white diamonds and soft pink/peach colored morganite shaped like little hearts and pears that were strategically placed here and there to look like flowers on a vine.

It was one of the more stunning pieces that he'd bought. At least in his opinion anyways. But he'd gotten others too just in case she wanted something more showy or simple.

He even bought a sterling silver, diamond, and amethyst one to go with some of her purple colored clothes.

"Here," He said as he handed it to her. "I'd like for you to wear this when we go out. If you don't like that one, I have others. But...you _need_ to wear one." He stressed the word _'need'_ as best as he could to make her understand that he couldn't let her leave the room without her neck covered.

He wasn't about to let some asshole that couldn't take a hint, try and take her from him. He'd kill someone first.

She hesitated for a moment, and then asked him if she was going to find a dead bird or something in the small box- earning her a WTF look from him as he growled out an irked sounding _no_. And then patiently waited for her to open the box.

The look on her face when she finally opened the box scared him a little bit. Mostly because he didn't know if her expression was a good one or a bad one. She looked dangerously like she was about to cry, which he would admit, threw him a bit. But for good reason.

He hated it when omegas cried.

Specifically _his_ omega.

Having her cry after handing her something so damn pretty would have made him feel like utter shit. Truly it would. Luckily for him, his angel wasn't the type to cry. At least not where he could see her.

And he was so _relieved_ when she finally spoke again that he could have easily fallen on his ass.

"It's beautiful, Clint."

He let out the breath that he hadn't been aware that he'd been holding and smiled at her. "I'm glad that you think so, sweetheart. Do you need my help putting it on?"

"I think that I can get it myself." She muttered with a small frown and then, she snapped the case closed and gave him an odd look before then asking suddenly, "Why do you want me to wear it so badly?"

 _Damn her mind_. He thought darkly knowing that what he said next would probably anger her considerably. Which was why he had a back up plan. Aside from collars for her, he'd bought a couple for himself as well.

Now- to be perfectly clear here- it was _unheard_ of for an alpha to wear a collar for their omega.

Especially since it meant that they were equals in things. Clint had no issue with that part. Nor did he have any issue with parading the fact that he'd collar himself for her in front of others.

It literally meant nothing to him as long as she was happy with the end result.

Besides, he was perfectly secure in his masculinity and station. If anyone said anything snide to him for wearing a collar himself, he'd simply shoot them in the leg or something that way he could finish the miserable bastards off later at his leisure. After all, they couldn't get far enough to escape if they were hobbled.

Now as to the part about the collar that he sort of had a problem with.

By wearing a collar matching Ichigo's- he would practically be painting a target on her back among many of his co-workers who happened to be old fashioned since having an alpha wear a collar was pretty much the same as a great big neon sign that read, **_MINE! I love and adore this person! I have no problem letting them command me!_**

And that was the true crux of his problem here.

Ichigo _could_ command him. She simply didn't seem to realize this fact just yet due to her naivete and ignorance about being an omega. To be able to command one's alpha, was considered the highest form of flattery and love and devotion for a claimed/bonded/mated omega.

It meant that the alpha would literally commit any sin imaginable and unimaginable just to make their omega happy.

He felt her poke him in the stomach to regain his attention and grabbed her hand as he slowly said, "It's a form of protection. To keep others from trying to take you away from me by force."

"Mating?" She asked, seeming to catch on pretty easily yet felt the need to ask him in order to confirm her suspicions. He nodded his head and she sighed. She didn't sound terribly happy about it. But she didn't seem angry or upset either.

"Alright," She said in a tired tone that had him wondering if they should really leave the room or not as she handed the box to him and presented him with her back. "Put it on me."

He wasted no time in doing so. Lifting the slightly heavy collar from it's box and settling it around her throat while she held her hair up out of the way for him. Once in was fastened around her throat, he took a moment to check and double check just how much skin it covered.

Wanting to make sure that it covered as much of her mating gland as humanly possible before leaning in and kissing the small sliver of exposed skin at her nape before stepping back a little bit and allowing her to drop her hair into place and then turning around so that he could see how it looked.

"It looks good on you." He said with a small smile as he reached over and picked up the bigger leather jewelry case and then handed it to her.

She scowled at him and growled out, "What is this? A fucking chastity belt?"

"No. It's _my_ collar. Wanna help me put it on?"

She rolled her eyes at him as he turned his back to her and let her put his matching collar around his neck while she fussed at him for making her feel like some sort of collared dog. He might have laughed. If he hadn't been aware of just how bothered she was at the moment as well as the fact that she wasn't trying to be funny.

She really did feel like a collared dog.

And that fact hurt him considerably.

* * *

"Where are we going?" Ichigo asked curiously as the two of them walked quietly together down the winding hallways.

"I was thinking of taking you by the gym so that I could do some training. My teammate Nat might be there at the moment, and as reluctant as I am to let the two of you meet..." She gave him an odd look. "You need a friend outside of myself. Plus if things go well, then Nat will probably fight Phil for the title of godparent to our kid. Which, I'm not going to lie- I would love to see."

He was rambling. He could tell by her bemused expression that she was enjoying listening to him ramble. So he kept chatting about anything and everything that he could come up with. Including his plans to look for a place for the two of them to live together before/after the baby was born. Possible names, and colors for the nursery. And the reason _why_ he was reluctant to let her meet Nat.

Which was a terrible mistake, because now she was dying to be friends with the red headed beta. If only because it was funny how much it worried him what the two of them might get up to together.

He even whined dramatically about all of the terrible habits that Nat was going to teach her as they finally reached the gym. And sure enough, Nat was there.

He started to tell Ichigo that she'd have to wait a little bit to have herself introduced to the beta since she was in the middle of training with some knives, but the moment he turned his back on her- Ichigo had totally vanished on him.

He heard her voice in the gym and covered his face and groaned as he turned back around to see his omega making a beeline for Nat who must have noticed her scent because the woman suddenly paused her training to give her a curious look.


	13. Chapter 13

Natasha _smelled_ the omega's scent mixed with Clint's own long before she ever saw or heard her. Which was enough to get her attention, but the fact that the omega had damn near managed to sneak up on her before she even turned her head- now that was totally attention worthy. And for a damn good reason.

She had years and years of training under her belt from the Red Room and then from her days as an agent of Shield; she _knew_ a killer when she saw one. And the omega coming up to her, she _was_ a killer.

The silent and effortless way that she moved gave her away just as much as her confident gait, how she held her head up and looked her in the eye, totally unafraid- shit, even the fucking way that she breathed had alarm bells going off in her head.

And she couldn't help but think in alarm, _What the fuck had Clint gotten himself into now?!_

If not for the fact that the young woman stopped several feet away, well out of her reach, though not out of the reach of her throwing knives- and smiled at her in a genuinely friendly manner that was disarming. Nat might have tried using her for target practice.

Well...either that or she would have run screaming from the room. Though the prospect of turning her back on this omega scared her damn near witless.

Pasting a smile on her face she looked the young woman over for a moment, letting her eyes stop just for a moment or so on the collar around her neck before she glanced away to see if she could spot Clint.

He was across the room looking like he was about to either spit nails or have a stroke.

So he obviously hadn't expected the omega to make any sort of move towards her. Which was good to know. It meant that she couldn't really _hurt_ him for this later.

Her eyes looked him over too and noted pretty much immediately that he had a matching collar around his own neck that went with the omega's and she felt all of the blood leave her face in shock. _Holy shit!_ When Clint got himself into a mess, he certainly didn't do it by halves.

"Hi, are you Nat?" The friendly sounding greeting almost had the beta tossing her knives at the young woman and hi-tailing it out of there to hang out with Phil for a while. The only thing that kept her firmly rooted in place was that now that the omega was closer, she could literally _smell_ her condition.

Which explained why Clint was hanging around so close by. _Stupid alpha hindbrain_. Nat thought.

"Yes." She finally said, deciding that if the omega was going to kill her then she'd at least take someone down with her. Clint was the most obvious choice. But anyone else would do too.

 _Speak of the devil and he shall appear_. She thought just as Rumlow and a couple of his alpha goons entered the gym. Intense fear of the omega aside, she felt positively giddy that she could take one or all of the bastards down with her if the omega decided to kill her.

It was like she had stepped into Meat-Shield's-R-Us or something.

Sensing Clint move closer to the two of them, Nat couldn't help but wonder if he was deciding _now_ of all times to let his hindbrain hijack his body so that he could act possessive and stuff. Though he seemed to have a good reason too since the moment Rumlow laid eyes on the omega, he and his goons started making cat calls at her.

Sweet thing.

Our bitch.

And little slut.

All of which went ignored by the omega who was still staring at Nat as if she were trying to figure out what to say next since Nat had practically left her hanging.

"I'm so glad to finally meet you," The omega finally said catching Nat off guard a little bit. "My name's Ichigo. I'm Clint's...uh...girlfriend. He's been talking about you almost non stop since we left the room earlier. So I wanted to meet you."

Nat blinked at her and then let her eyes drift a bit as Rumlow and his idiots closed in on them. However it wasn't until he was right behind the omega that Nat started to get a little bit alarmed.

Especially since Clint looked like he had blood in his eye as he picked up his pace a little bit, looking as if he would love nothing more than to _tackle_ Rumlow to the ground and beat him until his face was crushed in.

Rumlow made the mistake of reaching out and grabbing the omega's hair and jerking her head back roughly and then growling in her ear. "I said, present your holes for me you little slut."

Nat blinked, having never heard him say more than the cat calls even from right behind the omega. And she was fairly sure that it was wrong to touch another alpha's omega in such a manner.

Especially when said alpha was close enough to see and hear everything and was emotionally invested enough to get pissed over it.

It was like signing your own death warrant. And despite the fact that Rumlow tended to do stupid shit, he himself wasn't a stupid man. He knew that he wasn't supposed to touch another agent's collared omega. And he especially knew what it would do to Clint if he did.

Sure enough, Clint already had his gun in his hand and was aiming to take Rumlow's head off when Nat's mind suddenly seemed to register something odd and suspicious and happened to glance down at her hand and noticed that her throwing knife was curiously missing.

She barely managed to mutter a "What the-" when the omega winked at her and then stabbed Rumlow in the side, just under the ribs with her stolen knife.

_The same knife that Nat had no fucking idea how she had gotten her hands on?!_

The alpha yelped and released her hair and staggered back a little bit in shock and surprise as the omega turned to face him and simply said, "I don't like being grabbed by pigs." Earning a loud growl from the injured alpha as his goons started to get closer to her.

She just smiled at them as they were shot in the knee and fell to the floor screaming while Rumlow backpedaled a bit and looked at the omega and then at Clint who had finally reached her side. The blond slipped an possessive arm around her and pulled her close to his side and took a moment to press his lips to her temple before saying with a soft purr of approval, "Good girl. I'm getting you some knives, and a nice gun to use on unwanted alpha's."

The omega said nothing as Clint pointed his gun at Rumlow's head and then snarled, his fangs flashing in anger, " _Give. Me. A. Reason._ Not to blow your goddamned head off."

Rumlow stared at him for a moment, and then the omega and then opened his mouth to undoubtedly say something stupid, but was stopped when they all heard a familiar loud whistle from across the room mere seconds before he heard the director shout in an angry tone, "Agent Barton! I would thank you not to kill Agent Rumlow. I need him in fair condition for an upcoming mission!"

Clint didn't bother taking his eyes off of Rumlow or his idiots. Nor did he bother to lower the gun any.

He wanted Rumlow and his buddies to understand that they were a hairs breath from death as he heard Fury then shout at his omega and nearly _growled_ at his tone. "Omega! Are you causing trouble again girl?!"

"Fuck you patches!" Ichigo shouted back in a pissy tone. "You can't blame me for these dumbasses not knowing or having any manners! I suggest that you teach the pigs _better_! Maybe then, they wouldn't get hurt!"

Clint heard Fury's heavy footsteps come to a stop several feet away, and then heard a snort of amusement before the man muttered, "I'll make a note of that." Before he then asked Ichigo in a soft tone, "Are you alright? Rumlow isn't exactly gentle with omega's."

Clint could practically feel Ichigo roll her eyes before she said, "He just pulled my hair. Any _child_ can do that. So it's hardly worth worrying over."

Clint did growl then. Especially since he happened to _like_ her hair. So he didn't appreciate Rumlow grabbing it and pulling it like he had. _As if he were her alpha and had any right to do so._ He thought as another growl escaped his throat.

Ichigo reached up and lightly ran her fingers along the curve of his cheek, making his growl tamper off to a soft rumbling purr as he leaned his face into her touch and felt himself slowly calming as Fury snarled at Rumlow and his buddies about the sheer stupidity of their actions.

While Nat stared at the chaos around her and decided that maybe the omega wasn't so bad. After all, anyone that could stab Rumlow couldn't be all bad, right? Plus she _stabbed_ Rumlow. And anyone that could manage that was automatic friend material.


End file.
